FEC Form 3L due May 20

On May 20, 2009, certain Leadership PACs, Presidential campaigns and political party committees may be required to file FEC Form 3L for the first time. Under the new lobbyist bundling disclosure rules, “reporting committees” (authorized committees, Leadership PACs and political party committees) must disclose certain information about lobbyists/registrants and lobbyist/ registrant PACs that forward, or are credited with raising, two or more bundled contributions aggregating in excess of $16,000 during a specific covered period. See 11 CFR 104.22(a)(6). Recordkeeping requirements went into effect on March 19, 2009, and compliance with the reporting requirements is required after May 17, 2009.

Committees file their FEC Form 3L, as necessary, on the same schedule as they file FEC Form 3 or 3X. Committees required to file Form 3L can elect to file Form 3L monthly or quarterly. 11 CFR 104.22(a)(5). Leadership PACs and party committees that are Form 3L quarterly filers are required to file only semiannually during a non-election year, while candidate committees that are Form 3L quarterly filers are required to file quarterly. For Form 3L monthly filers, the first Form 3L will be due on May 20, 2009, if they received two or more bundled contributions that aggregate more than $16,000 from March 19 through April 30, 2009. (For Form 3L quarterly filers that received two or more bundled contributions that aggregate more than $16,000 from March 19 through June 30, 2009, the first Form 3L will be due on July 15, 2009, for candidate committees and on July 31, 2009, for Leadership PACs and party committees.

Monthly filing reporting committees wishing to change their lobbyist bundling disclosure from monthly to quarterly must first notify the Commission in writing and will receive a letter indicating the Commission’s acknowledgment of the request. Electronic filers must file this request electronically. A reporting committee may change its Form 3L filing frequency only once in a calendar year. 11 CFR 104.22(a)(5) (iv).

Disclosure requirements for reporting committees

Reporting committees meeting the threshold for the lobbyist bundling disclosure must use FEC Form 3L (Report of Contributions Bundled by Lobbyists/Registrants and Lobbyist/Registrant PACs). The lobbyist bundling disclosure includes:

• Name of each lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC;
• Address of each lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC;
• Employer of each lobbyist/registrant (if an individual);
• The aggregate amount of bundled contributions forwarded by or received and credited to each lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC by the reporting committee during the covered period; and
• The aggregate amount of refunds of bundled contributions returned to each lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC by the reporting committee during the covered period. 11 CFR 104.22(b)(1).

For more information about these filing requirements, see the March 2009 issue of the Record . Electronic filers are required to file FEC Form 3L electronically. A new release of FECFile is available from the FEC. Consult the electronic filing page for up-to-date information. A paper version of FEC Form 3L is available for download and printing on the FEC website.