Watchdogs Urge More Disclosure of Expenditures by Political Committees in Comments on FEC Rule

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Today, the Campaign Legal Center, joined by Democracy 21, filed comments with the Federal Election Commission supporting a draft rule interpreting disclosure requirements for political committee expenditures and urging the Commission to require even more detailed disclosure of payments by a committee’s vendor to subvendors on behalf of that committee.

“When a vendor such as a campaign consultant spends money on behalf of a committee through payments to subvendors, such as a payment to an ad production company and a payment to a TV station, these payments to the production company and TV station should each be disclosed, but the FEC has not been requiring such disclosure,” said Paul S. Ryan, Campaign Legal Center Senior Counsel. “Instead, in such scenarios, the FEC has only been requiring committees to report the lump-sum payment to the consultant, which leaves voters in the dark about how committees are actually spending campaign dollars. The FEC can and should fix this disclosure problem.”

To read the comments filed by the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21, click here.