Message from the Chairman

I am very pleased to announce that the FEC has launched a new initiative seeking public input on ways in which the Commission might improve its website and, more generally, make improvements in the Commission’s use of the Internet to communicate with the public. As part of this initiative, we recently published in the Federal Register a Notice of Public Hearing and Request for Comment that outlines many of the various avenues for improvement that we are considering and seeks your advice on our efforts. The hearing notice is available on the FEC website at http://transition.fec.gov/pages/hearings/internethearing.shtml.

Since the FEC website was launched in 1996, the Commission has continuously engaged in efforts to improve all aspects of how it discloses information through its website. However, this initiative represents the first time that the Commission has taken formal and comprehensive steps to look outside of the agency for suggestions, opinions and ideas on improving our chief disclosure vehicle. I encourage you to participate in this important initiative by sending us your suggestions and recommendations about what improvements we can make.

Many of you may have turned to the Commission's website in the past for information and have either found that the information is not organized intuitively, or that you were unable to access the information easily, or that the information you sought was not available on the FEC website at all. This is the type of feedback that only you, the public users of our website, can provide.

We request that comments be sent to us by July 21, 2009. You can email them to improvefecinternet@fec.gov. After we receive all the public comments, the Commission will hold a public hearing on these issues on Wednesday and Thursday, July 29-30, 2009.

Thank you and, on behalf of all the Commissioners, we are looking forward to receiving your suggestions.