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...FEC voted
unanimously to adopt new regulations to implement the “bundling”
provisions contained in the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act
of 2007 (HLOGA)...
The new rules require
campaign committees, leadership PACs and party committees to disclose
registered lobbyists and lobbyist PACs that give multiple bundled
contributions aggregating more than $16,000 in a reporting period.
According to HLOGA, a contribution is considered "bundled" if it is
“forwarded” by, or “received” and “credited” to, a person reasonably
known by the reporting committee to be a registered lobbyist or
lobbyist PAC. The proposed rules do not require any additional
disclosure by lobbyists, their employers or their PACs. Instead, the
reporting burden falls on the recipient candidate committees, political
party committees and leadership PACs. The reporting rules, nonetheless,
will affect lobbyists, their employers and their PACs, depending on
whether or not they engage in activity that falls within the definition
of "bundling" or if they are publicly disclosed as "bundlers" on a
committee's reports. While the HLOGA calls for the broadest possible
disclosure of any activities that may constitute bundling, any such
activities will not be captured in practice unless the campaign
formally recognizes the lobbyist as a "bundler" by giving the lobbyist
credit for the contribution. In addition, the regulations do not
require disclosure of individuals and groups that are not
federally-registered lobbyists.
Disclosure must include
the names, addresses, and employers of bundlers, and the amounts raised
during the covered period. Disclosure is to be filed semi-annually, as
well as quarterly or monthly depending on the reporting committee's
elected schedule for filing campaign finance reports. Reporting
committees must track bundled contributions received starting 30 days
after the rules are reported in the Federal Register. Under the
law, reporting committees are not required to file the first Form 3L
until three months after publication of the bundling rules and must
maintain records of bundled contributions for three years after filing.
Please note that if your organization is registered under the Lobbying
Disclosure Act (LDA) of 1995 and administers a political action
committee (PAC), the PAC must submit an amended FEC Form 1– Statement
of Organization as a result of this new regulation.
To Learn more about
the bundling rule adopted by the FEC please go to
http://www.fec.gov/agenda/2008/mtgdoc08-48.pdf.
The recent rule
making has
resulted in changes to the FEC Form 1 (lobbyist bundling). The FEC
Version 6.3 e-filing will go into effect on March 10, 2009. PACbuilder
will be updated with the new release.
...FEC Releases New
Contribution Limits for 2010 Cycle...
The FEC has increased contribution limits for the 2009-2010 federal
election cycle. The amount that an individual contributor can give to a
federal candidate has increased by $100. Donors may now contribute
$2,400 to a federal candidate during the primaries and an additional
$2,400 during the general election. In the 2007-2008 cycle, the
contribution limit for the primaries and general election was $2,300
each. The limit for individual donors making contributions to a
national party committee, such as the Democratic National Committee or
the Republican National Committee, has also increased to $30,400, up
from $28,500 in 2007-2008.
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 indexed contribution limits
for inflation and called on the FEC to calculate new limits every two
years, based on US Labor Department statistics that track the cost of
living. To view an FEC contribution limit chart, visit the FEC website
at http://www.fec.gov/info/contriblimits0910.pdf.
...The PMA PAC Files
Termination Report…
The PMA Group, a prominent defense industry lobbying firm, shut down
its PAC amid allegations of funneling campaign contributions through
sham donors. The PMA Group's founder and president, Paul Magliochetti,
a former top aide to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), chairman of the House
Appropriations subcommittee, is being investigated by federal
prosecutors for funneling money through donors who are listed in FEC
reports as PMA Group employees but are not tied to the company. The
firm has contributed $3.4 million to current members of Congress since
1989, 79% of it to Democrats, according to the nonpartisan Center for
Responsive Politics.
...2009 Reporting
Schedule...
PACs have the choice of selecting their reporting schedule once per
calendar year. To change a filing frequency (for example, from monthly
to semi-annually in a non election year), a PAC must notify the FEC in
writing. All reports filed after providing a notice of change in filing
frequency must follow the new filing schedule. Electronic filers must
file this request electronically through a Form 99.
How to Keep Your PAC
Compliant in the New Calendar Year
Transitioning into the New Year is the
perfect opportunity to assess
and review your campaign finance processes. Having a
process put into
place to ensure the accuracy of your daily PAC administrative
activities can be very helpful with reliable finance reporting,
reducing/eliminating amendments, protecting your committee’s assets,
ensuring that your contributions and disbursements are compliant with
FEC regulations, and much more. Here are some
recommendations:
- Ensure that everyone with
access to
your
PACbuilder account is
well versed in the regulations that apply to your PAC. PACbuilder
user controls allow you to
limit user access to records. It is also prudent to make sure that no
single user has
absolute control over your financial transactions.
-
Assignment
of direct
tasks make it easy to perform an internal audit. Break
up the tasks
associated with your PAC into different parts and assign them to each
person that has access to your database. You can assign one person to
collect and input all contributions, another to make all disbursements,
and another to reconcile the contribution and disbursement reports
which can be generated inside PACbuilder to your bank statements.
- Be aware of the risks that face
your PAC.
Ensure that the
contributions that you receive are only from members of your restricted
class. Monitor payments made using a financial instrument, such as a
check, as these are sometimes returned after you have reported them to
the FEC. In such event, immediately, upon receipt of the returned
check,
record it inside PACbuilder so that it will be reflected in your next
filing with the FEC.
- Maintain constant communication
within your PAC
department. Assign a liaison to communicate with all
your external
contacts to ensure uniformity of your messages. Having
one person from
your PAC as your legal department liaison, your member communication
coordinator, the corporate liaison, e.t.c, will ensure that your
communication with them is seamless, and that nothing is lost in
translation.
Never Lose Site of the
Big Picture
 Provide a
geographical
representation of your PAC
Contributions and PAC Disbursements. Break down your financial
information by contribution level, density of supporters, and
disbursement reports mapped out and color coded by state.
- Motivate and inform
supporters if
they're
exceeding expectations or falling behind
- Impress board
members with
detailed information
of PAC performance by location
- Enhance
accountability and
disbursement reports
with geographical analysis
Get in touch with your Account
Manager today
for more information.
101
PACbuilder
features to enhance your PAC productivity
Continuing from where our last
eNewsletter
left off, here are the next
ten features of PACbuilder that will help boost your PAC productivity
and ease compliance with the Federal Election Campaign Act. Send us an email
and let us know what you would like to see in this section!
61: Automatically Alert Your Members Of Town
Hall Meetings
By combining your PACbuilder, Capwiz, and Knowlegis systems, you can
automatically target your members in Capwiz based on contributions they
have made in PACbuilder and send them custom information on upcoming
town hall meetings in their districts. Once you have the systems setup,
you're four clicks away from providing your members with timely updates
on upcoming town hall meetings hosted by their legislators.
Contact your Account Manager today to find out how you can have your
systems integrated.
60: Increase Grassroots Engagement
Encourage your PAC members to maximize the return on their investment
by supporting their contributions with increased activism. Once your
PACbuilder contributors are integrated into your Capwiz site, target
your PAC members with a custom message that encourages them to take
action in support of their contributions. Contact your Account Manager
today to find out how you can have your systems integrated.
59: Grow Your Soft Money
Did you know that you can have a soft money fund that can support your
hard money/FEC PAC? Commonly known as the administrative or education
fund, many PACs today have these funds to assist their membership
development efforts. Golf tournaments, Raffle prices, and Member
appreciation events can all be funded through this account.
58: Manage Bundling Effectively
With the new Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA), it is
extremely crucial that PACs efficiently and effectively manage bundled
contributions that they receive. Send your attributors a report at the
end of every reporting cycle to keep them up to date on their effort
and assist them with compliance with HLOGA using PACbuilder:
Go to Reports > Report Library
> Attributor
Report
57: Delegate Solicitation Calls
As you know, a good way to boost your contributions is to educate your
members on what issues you are tackling with the contributions that you
receive from them. Using the call sheets in PACbuilder, you can
effectively delegate these calls to PAC support staff, empowering them
with the information necessary to make an effective solicitation call
to your members. Call Sheets are located under Reports.
56: Manage Active and Inactive Members
As you know, it is best practice to have an accurate count of the
active members of your PAC, and with the volatility of jobs today you
want to make sure that you stay on top of this count. Many PACbuilder
clients use a user defined field to monitor active and inactive
members. Do you?
If not, contact your Account Manager to get assistance in setting this
up.
55: Reconcile Your FEC Report and Your Bank
Statement
Using the PACbuilder financial statement, you get a bird’s eye view of
the transactions that have been performed through your PAC over a given
period of time. This allows you to input your previous bank balance,
set the date range, and generate a new balance that tells you
everything that has gone through. The new balance can now be compared
to your bank statement to reconcile any difference(s). This financial
statement can be found at
> Financial Reports >
Disbursement Reports > Financial
Statement (under "Select
Report").
54: Automatically Set Recurring Reports
Once your FEC report and your bank statements are reconciled, you can
schedule this report to be delivered to any inbox on a preset schedule.
For example, you can have the financial statement delivered to you and
three of your colleagues daily, weekly, monthly, e.t.c. Select "Set
Recurring" at the bottom of the report to take advantage of this
feature. You can also manage your recurring reports under Reports
> Report Manager.
53: Monitor Participation Fluctuations
In addition to managing your active vs. inactive members, you should
also track your members' participation levels. Monitoring and managing
your members' participation levels provides you with the ability to
analyze educated forecasts on your financial status, which effectively
determines how your budget is managed. Contact your Account Manager
today for a run through of this feature.
52: Organize a "Day-of-Service"
Although there is a $5,000 contribution limit from members to your PAC,
you can still get more from your members by having them volunteer in
the community. Bring your members together while giving back. A
“Day-of-Service” can also send a message to other citizens- who are not
members- that your PAC is committed to social responsibility. Use
PACbuilder to manage this event and others like it.
Contact your Account Manager today for tips.
101 features archive:
101-
92
91-82
81-72
71-62
Stayed tuned for more 101 features to enhance your PAC productivity!
It's Time to
Brush Up On Your PACbuilder Skills
Starting in March, PACbuilder trainings will be offered every 3rd
Tuesday of the month!
Familiarize or
refresh your skills with the various components of PACbuilder.
Each online class lasts one hour and includes a brief Q&A
session to allow
you to actively learn about the critical features of PACbuilder right
from
your office!
Sign
up today
Become a PACbuilder expert!
Attend all 3 advanced trainings for PACbuilder.
Preferences,
Searches & Reports
Learn helpful tips on how to customize your PACbuilder settings, build
custom reports, and create and save your own search criteria for more
complex and frequently used searches.
PAC
Compliance Reporting
Gain extra insight on contribution limits, in-kind data entry,
attribution and reattribution, solicitation rules, FEC reports and
amendments.
Effective
Communication
Discover how to enhance your communications by using mail merges,
broadcast e-mails, and automating report retrievals.
Capitol
Advantage
Publishing
How can you thank your donors once they've contributed to your PAC?
Send them the original "face book" for networking with Congress! And
don't forget to personalize them with your logo...
Pre-order
your 111th Congressional Directories today!
Knowlegis
4,272 and Counting...
That's how many congressional town hall meetings Knowlegis tracked for
the last Congress. Knowlegis Town Hall Meeting
Alert Center provides
the most comprehensive database of congressional town hall meetings.
- Receive timely alerts to your desktop.
- Track in-district opportunities.
- Strengthen your grassroots
presence.
Try this innovative product to
rally your advocates and connect with legislators.
Call us today at
703.289.9816.
Supplemental or
explanatory information on a reporting schedule; it is
often used to disclose additional information about an itemized
transaction that is included in the total receipts or disbursements for
the current report or a previous report.
Email the correct question to mkordestani@capitoladvantage.com.
The first 3 people with correct question will receive a Starbucks gift
card.
Question
to last edition's PAC Jeopardy Answer: What is
a non-connected committee?
The
Winner of last edition’s PAC Jeopardy: Carla
Lochiatto of ASAE
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