Administrative Fines

Beginning with the July 15, 2000, quarterly reports, the Commission implemented a new program to assess civil money penalties (or fines) for violations involving:

• Failure to file reports on time;
• Failure to file reports at all; and
• Failure to file 48-hour notices. (These disclose contributions of $1,000 or more in the days just before an election.)

Penalty amounts are based on a formula that considers the length of the delay in submitting the report, the amount of financial activity disclosed, and whether the report was due close to an election. There are also provisions for increasing the penalty if the committee has been fined previously.

This file includes information identifying the report that caused the penalty, the amount of the fine, information about the candidacy if the penalty was paid by a campaign committee, whether the report was late or not filed and whether the penalty has been paid. The XML and CSV files also contain the Commission generated case number for each case.

The Administrative Fine program is based on amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act that permit the FEC to impose fines, calculated using published schedules, for violations of reporting requirements that relate to the reporting periods that end on or before December 31, 2013. Committee treasurers may be liable for fines if reports are not filed or not filed on time.

More on the Administrative Fines Program.