Enforcing federal campaign finance law

Enforcement cases can come from audits, complaints, referrals or self-submissions:

• Audits: The agency’s monitoring process may detect potential violations through a review of a committee’s reports or through a Commission audit.
• Complaints: Potential violations may be brought to the Commission’s attention through the complaint process. This process enables anyone to file a sworn complaint alleging violations and explaining the basis for the allegations.
• Referrals: The referral process enables other government agencies to refer possible violations to the FEC.
• Self-submissions: Any person or entity who believes it has committed a violation may bring the matter sua sponte to the Commission’s attention.

Audits of political committees

Generally, the Commission audits a committee under two circumstances:

1. When a committee participates in publicly financed presidential campaigns, or
2. When it appears that a committee has not met substantial compliance for reporting.

Complaints

Anyone can submit a complaint if they believe a violation of the law has occurred or is about to occur.

Enforcement cases are primarily handled by the Office of General Counsel and are known as Matters Under Review (MURs).

Other programs designed to augment the Office of General Counsel's enforcement role include the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program and the Administrative Fine Program.

Matters Under Review (MURs)

Because the public has the right to know the outcome of any enforcement proceeding, redacted files are made available to the public when the Commission’s vote to close the file becomes effective, which is 30 days (or the next business day if the 30th day falls on a weekend or a holiday) after the Commission Secretary certifies the Commission’s vote to close the case file.

Alternative Dispute Resolution Program

Alternative Dispute Resolution is a series of procedures for resolving enforcement matters through mutual consent of the parties involved.

Administrative Fine Program

The Administrative Fine Program assesses civil money penalties for late or non-filed reports.

Enforcement statistics track the number of FEC enforcement matters resolved and associated penalties.

Enforcement process documents: The Commission has released a number of documents relating to enforcement and compliance processes in an effort to increase transparency and make internal documents available to the public.