Wnited States Senate WASHINGTON, DC 20510 COSPONSOR CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE PARITY ACT and FILE YOUR FEC REPORT ELECTRONICALLY April 13, 2011 Dear Colleague: S. 219, the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act would require Senate campaign committees to file their campaign finance reports directly with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) rather than first filing with the Secretary of the Senate. This bill would bring Senate campaign reporting and transparency into the 21st Century by requiring Senate candidates to do what Presidential and House candidates have been doing since 2001 As you know, April 15" is the deadline for the next quarterly campaign finance reports to be filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). In the Senate, we have long exempted ourselves from mandatory electronic filing of campaign reports, holding fast to an archaie system of filing our reports with the Secretary of the Senate, ‘who then prints them out and delivers them to the FEC, only to be re-entered into its computer databases. As the sponsors of the legislation to address this opaque and cumbersome process, we will be filing electronically with the FEC this quarter, and we ask you to join us in voluntarily filing your reports online. Just as taxpayers may choose to file their retums electronically, Senators and candidates can also voluntarily file campaign finance reports electronically. Doing so will help ensure that campaign finance information is online, in real time, while decreasing the chances that errors will occur when the data is re-entered. Most campaigns already have this information in electronic form, and the FEC makes it easy to file electronically by simply downloading its free filing software and contacting the agency for an ID and password. Senate campaign committees are the only federal political committees not required to file their reports directly and electronically to the FEC. Manually inputting Senate records costs $250,000 a year and prevents citizens from viewing Senate candidate campaign finance information until weeks or months after the data is initially filed. For example, campaign finance data filed in the fourth quarter prior to a general election is typically not accessible to the public until the following February. after the election has taken place. If Senate campaign committees were to file directly with the FEC, it would be a vast improvement over the current situation, where journalists and interested members of the public have to review computer images of paper-filed copies of reports. Legislation requiring mandatory electronic filing by Senate candidates should still be passed. But, until that happens, I urge you all to join me in making campaign finance reports transparent and timely by taking advantage of the option to file electronically. Taka Sincerely, Jon Tester [2 Cochran United States Senator United States Senator