The Commission held a public hearing Wednesday, July 29, to receive testimony regarding possible improvements to its website and Internet communications. At the hearing, Chairman Steven Walther announced that the Commission would extend the deadline for public comments to August 20, 2009.
Click here for a copy of the hearing announcement and request for comments as published in Federal Register July 1, 2009 [PDF; 12 pages]
The supplemental information below may be of assistance to commenters.
PDF files can be viewed using the free Adobe Reader available from Adobe.
The FEC Web site has both Web and FTP servers. There are various navigational aids: a menu system, a site map, a search engine, and navigational breadcrumbs at the top of primary pages.
Both paper and electronic filings can be viewed. Paper filings are indexed to the images. Electronic filings can be seen as HTML pages or delimited files. One can query subsets of the data taken from both electronic and paper filings. In addition Campaign Finance Maps provide graphical ways for accessing this data.
There are specialized query processes available for searching and retrieving legal materials related to the FEC's enforcement and policy making role such as the Enforcement Query System and the Advisory Opinions Search.
In addition to the thousands of pages and documents on the servers, information is also available through several dynamic applications such as the Commission Calendar and the recent List of Lobbyist/Registrant PACs.