News Releases, Media Advisories

For Immediate Release:                                                                              Contact:  Sharon Snyder
November 22, 1999                                                                                                          Ron Harris
                                                                                                                                             Ian Stirton
                                                                                                                                             Kelly Huff

WASHINGTON – The Federal Election Commission today certified $2,468,921 be paid by the U.S. Treasury to the Reform Party 2000 Convention Committee.

The Reform Party 2000 Convention Committee registered with the Commission as a political committee on October 5, 1999, having submitted its application statement and letter of agreements on September 21. The committee said in those documents that the approximate dates for the convention are August 10-13, 2000, in Long Beach, California.

Federal election law permits all eligible national committees of major and minor parties to receive public funds to pay the official costs of their presidential nominating conventions. Major party conventions are fully funded at $4 million, plus an adjustment for inflation over 1974. Payments of $13,224,000 were made to the 2000 Democratic National Convention Committee, Inc. and to the Committee on Arrangements for the 2000 Republican National Convention on June 28 of this year.

Minor party conventions are entitled to partial funding. The amount is determined based on a ratio. Specifically, one takes the average of the total number of votes cast for Clinton and Dole in 1996. Divide that number into the number of votes cast for Perot in 1996. That will give a percentage. Multiply the full funding amount for 2000 ($13.2 million) by that percentage. The resulting amount is the $2.5 million entitlement for the Reform Party.

The National Committee of the Reform Party, USA and its convention committee qualify as a minor party under the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act for purposes of convention financing and eligibility. A minor party is defined as a political party whose candidate for the office of president in the preceding presidential election received more then 5%, but less than 25% of the total popular votes cast. In the 1996 general election, the Reform Party candidate, Ross Perot, received 8.4% of the popular vote. Accordingly, the Reform Party is entitled to partial convention funding for 2000.

Initial payments are made by the U.S. Treasury on or after July 1 of the year preceding the presidential election. Payments for an additional cost-of-living adjustment will be made in 2000. In exchange for public funding of the conventions, committees agree to certain requirements including spending limits, the filing of periodic disclosure reports, and detailed audits.

The public funding portion of presidential elections is financed by the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, which receives funds through dollars voluntarily "checked off" by taxpayers on federal income tax forms.

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