July

10, 2013

Open Letter to Senators From the Sunlight Foundation: File Your Campaign Finance Reports Electronically Dear Senators: On Monday, July 15, Senators and Senate candidates will be required to file their mandatory campaign finance reports, making details about campaign contributions and expenditures available to the public. Due to a loophole in the law that the Senate has been unable to close, Senators are permitted to file reports on paper, rather than electronically with the Federal Election Commission. The Sunlight Foundation is writing to urge all Senators to file your campaign finance reports in an electronic format with the FEC. Volunteering to electronically file your reports is a simple step that will make your campaign finance information more transparent and accessible to the American people. Candidates running for the House, presidential candidates and other political committees have been required to file their campaign finance reports electronically for many years. The law requires that the information in candidates campaign finance reports be made available to the public so that voters have the ability to learn who is funding the campaigns of those running for federal office. Unfortunately, exempting Senators and Senate candidates from mandatory electronic filing has resulted in delayed disclosure of critical campaign finance information. Senators file reports with the Secretary of the Senate, who delivers paper copies to the FEC. That agency must then manually input the data from thousands of pages of paper into databases before the information can be made public in a searchable, usable manner. This process costs taxpayers over $400,000 a year, but, more importantly, delays online access to information sometimes until after the election has taken place undermining one of the key purposes of disclosure. By virtue of the fact that this is public information, campaign finance data should be made available immediately. There is no rationale for the current process, which only serves to prevent the public from receiving meaningful information in a timely manner. Commonsense legislation to require electronic filing by Senators has been stymied. But a legal mandate is not necessary in order for Senators to provide their campaign finance information in electronic form to the FEC. In the first quarter of this year,

fifteen senators voluntarily filed their campaign finance reports with the FEC. In the second quarter, we encourage all Senators join Senators Baucus, Boxer, Cochran, Cornyn, Donnelly, Feinstein, Franken, Gillibrand, King, Leahy, McCaskill, Sanders, Schumer, Tester and Warren in demonstrating your commitment to transparency by electronically filing your campaign finance reports with the FEC. Sincerely, The Sunlight Foundation