Modification and Redaction of Contributor Information

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION <CFR>11 CFR Parts 104, 110, and 400</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Notice 2024-29]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Modification and Redaction of Contributor Information</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Election Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Federal Election Commission proposes to amend its regulations by establishing procedures for contributors or their agents to request the Commission—in certain limited circumstances when there is a reasonable probability the contributor may face threats, harassment or reprisal—to modify or redact, in whole or in part, certain contributor information ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> mailing address, occupation, and employer name) from a disclosure report or statement that has been filed with the Commission. The Commission seeks comment on the proposed rules and has not made any final decisions about the issues presented in this rulemaking. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before February 18, 2025. The Commission may hold a public hearing on this rulemaking. Anyone wishing to testify at such a hearing must file timely written comments and must include in the written comments a request to testify. If a hearing is to be held, the Commission will publish a notification in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> announcing the date and time of the hearing. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> All comments must be in writing. Commenters are encouraged to submit comments electronically via the Commission's website at <E T="03">https://sers.fec.gov/fosers,</E> reference REG 2024-06. Alternatively, comments may be submitted in paper form addressed to the Federal Election Commission, Attn.: Mr. Robert M. Knop, Assistant General Counsel for Policy, 1050 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20463 (for U.S. Postal Service) or 20002 (for all other delivery services). Each commenter must provide, at a minimum, their first name, last name, city, and state. All properly submitted comments, including attachments, will become part of the public record, and the Commission will make comments available for public viewing on the Commission's website and in the Commission's Public Records Office. Accordingly, commenters should not provide in their comments any information that they do not wish to make public, such as a home street address, personal email address, date of birth, phone number, social security number, or driver's license number, or any information that is restricted from disclosure, such as trade secrets or commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Mr. Robert M. Knop, Assistant General Counsel for Policy, Ms. Lindsay Bird, Attorney, or Mr. Isaac Campbell, Attorney, 1050 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20463 (for U.S. Postal Service) or 20002 (for all other delivery services), (202) 694-1650 or (800) 424-9530. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> The Federal Election Campaign Act (“the Act”)  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> generally requires contributors' identities to be disclosed in reports or statements filed with the Commission. Namely, political committees must disclose the name, mailing address, occupation, and employer name of each individual who contributes an aggregate in excess of $200 per calendar year (or per election cycle in the case of an authorized committee). <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> Moreover, conduits and intermediaries receiving and forwarding earmarked contributions to candidates must disclose every contributor's name and mailing address, regardless of the amount of the earmarked contribution. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> The Commission, in turn, must post the reports and statements containing the identification information on its website. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  52 U.S.C. 30101-45. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  52 U.S.C. 30104(b)(3)(A); 11 CFR 104.3(a)(4). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  11 CFR 110.6(c)(1)(iv)(A). If the contribution exceeds $200, the conduit or intermediary must also report the contributor's occupation and employer. <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  52 U.S.C. 30112(a). </FTNT> While recognizing that there are important governmental interests that justify the Act's disclosure requirements, the Supreme Court has acknowledged that disclosing a contributor's identity may expose them to threats, harassment, or retaliation, resulting in a significant burden on their First Amendment rights. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> Accordingly, the Court has required an exemption from the Act's reporting requirements when there is a “reasonable probability” that the contributor may face such threats, harassment, or retaliation. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">Buckley</E> v. <E T="03">Valeo,</E> 424 U.S. 1, 68 (1976) ( <E T="03">per curiam</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> Thus far, the courts have granted disclosure exemptions only to committees and organizations that sought to withhold the identity of their contributors due to demonstrated threats, harassment, or reprisals resulting from association with that committee or organization. The Commission has also granted such exemptions via the advisory opinion process when the requesting committee or organization was able to demonstrate specific evidence of past threats and harassment. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> From time to time, the Commission has also received requests from individual contributors who wished to have their identifying information removed from disclosure reports. And the Commission granted such requests when they were supported by evidence of threats, harassment, or reprisal. The Commission is now considering whether to establish a procedure to formalize the submission and consideration of requests by individual contributors when reasonable probability exists that the contributors may face threats, harassment, or reprisal. <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>  Advisory Opinion 1990-13 (Socialist Workers' Party); Advisory Opinion 1996-46 (Socialist Workers' Party); Advisory Opinion 2003-02 (Socialist Workers' Party); Advisory Opinion 2009-01 (Socialist Workers' Party); Advisory Opinion 2012-38 (Socialist Workers' Party). </FTNT> Accordingly, the Commission proposes to revise its regulations to establish a process for individual contributors (or their agents) to request that the Commission modify or redact, in whole or in part, certain contributor information ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> mailing address, occupation, and employer name) from a disclosure report or statement that has been filed with the Commission under 52 U.S.C. 30104 and 30116(a)(8). The Commission would grant the request if it determines that the request establishes a reasonable probability that disclosure of the requestor's identifying information would subject the requestor to threats, harassment, or reprisals. The Commission invites public comments on the proposed rules. <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Requirements To Disclose Contributor's Identities</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD3">1. Political Committees</HD> Political committees must file disclosure reports with the Commission on a regular basis. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> These reports must include the “identification” of any person who contributes more than $200 during a calendar year (or during an election cycle, in the case of an authorized committee). <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> The Act defines the term “identification” to mean “in the case of any individual, the name, the mailing address, and the occupation of such individual, as well as the name of his or her employer.”  <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> “Mailing address” means any address where a person receives mail, including a business address. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 52 U.S.C. 30104(a). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> 30104(b)(3)(A); 11 CFR 104.3(a)(4). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>  52 U.S.C. 30101(13). <E T="03">See also</E> 11 CFR 100.12. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>   <E T="03">See, e.g.,</E> Federal Election Commission, Record at 4 (Dec. 2009) (“A mailing address is any address at which an individual can receive mail, including a work address or a P.O. Box.”), <E T="03">http://www.fec.gov/pdf/record/2009/dec09.pdf.</E> </FTNT> When the treasurer of a political committee demonstrates to the Commission that the committee used best efforts to obtain, maintain, and submit the information required by the Act, any report or records of such committee will be considered in compliance with the Act. <SU>12</SU> <FTREF/> Commission regulations specify the actions that treasurers must take to demonstrate that they have exercised best efforts to obtain and report the “identification” of each person whose contribution(s) they are required to disclose. <SU>13</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>12</SU>  52 U.S.C. 30102(i); 11 CFR 104.7. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>13</SU>  11 CFR 104.7(b). </FTNT> First, the committee must include a clear and conspicuous request for the contributor's identification information in any solicitations. <SU>14</SU> <FTREF/> Second, if the contributor does not provide sufficient identification information when making the contribution, the committee must make at least one request for the information within 30 days of receipt of the contribution. <SU>15</SU> <FTREF/> Third, if the contributor does not respond to the follow-up request, but the committee possesses the information in its contributor records, fundraising records, or prior reports filed during the same two-year election cycle, then the committee must use that information when disclosing the contribution. <SU>16</SU> <F ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 65k characters. 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