Fec Administrative Improvements Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. STEIL. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 8738) to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require electronic report filing for persons making certain electioneering communications and to permit political committees to make disbursements other than by check.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 8738

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``FEC Administrative Improvements Act''. SEC. 2. REQUIRING ELECTRONIC FILING.

Section 304(a)(11)(A)(i) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104(a)(11)(A)(i)) is amended by inserting ``or makes electioneering communications'' after ``expenditures''. SEC. 3. PERMITTING POLITICAL COMMITTEES TO MAKE DISBURSEMENTS BY METHODS OTHER THAN CHECK.

Section 302(h)(1) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30102(h)(1)) is amended by striking ``except by check drawn on such accounts in accordance with this section'' and inserting ``except from such accounts''.
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Mr. STEIL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of H.R. 8738, the FEC Administrative Improvements Act.

I thank my friends, Ranking Member Morelle and the chair of our Subcommittee on Elections, Representative Lee from Florida, for their leadership on this legislation.

Our campaign finance system wasn't designed for the digital age. That extends to the statutes governing the work of the Federal Elections Commission.

This bill implements several recommendations from the FEC to modernize their administrative operations and reduce outdated administrative burdens.

The bill expands the electronic filing requirements to electioneering communications reports and allows political committees to make disbursements by methods other than checks.

Madam Speaker, the work of the FEC is important to our Federal election system. This bill improves their efficiency and modernizes our campaign finance system for the digital age.

I urge immediate passage of the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. STEIL. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, the ranking member, Mr. Morelle, for his work on this legislation. There is a lot of work to be done to update our campaign finance laws for the digital age, and this is an important piece of legislation. I encourage all my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 8738. I yield back the balance of my time.

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