In the Finance Office, we have worked considerable overtime in implementing the 5.14 pay raise and getting the staffs of new Members on the payroll. REPORT ON FEDERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN ACT In the Office of Records and Registration, we have had an extremely busy year with the implementation of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which all of you on the subcommittee were concerned with during your campaigns. I am very pleased with the work of the Records and Registration Office during this first year of the act. Mr. Chairman, I have an extensive report of the activities of my office in supervising this act, which I shall not read fully, but submit for the record of this hearing. I believe that all of you and the Members of the House will find it helpful. (The report follows:) SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT OF W. PAT JENNINGS, CLERK OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CAMPAIGN EXPENDITURE AND LOBBYING RESPONSIBILITIES The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA) was signed into law in an election year on February 7, 1972, to be effective in 60 days on April 7, 1972, with the first primary election reports due to arrive 10 days later. During that interim 60-day period, in my capacity as supervisory officer over candidates for the House of Representatives and committees supporting them, we formulated regulations and accounting instructions and designed reporting forms in close coordination with the other supervisory officers, the Honorable Francis R. Valeo, Secretary of the Senate, who is supervisory officer over senatorial candidates, and the Honorable Elmer B. Staats, Comptroller General of the United States, who is supervisory officer over presidential and vice presidential candidates. This coordination resulted in almost identical regulations and reporting forms. Simultaneously, during that interim 60-day period, we completely restructured the Office of Records and Registration, and commenced an expansion program to accommodate the additional campaign disclosure responsibilities assigned by the FECA. During the succeeding months of 1972, its permanent staff was selectively and professionally upgraded by hiring a group of well-qualified college graduates and expanded from 2 to 20. During the general election reporting period, six additional temporary employees were hired. Nevertheless, during 1972, I utilized only $172,965.67 of the $216,732.19 authorized for its staff personnel costs. Also during this same interim 60-day period, my staff designed a sophisticated receipt, storage, and retrieval system for FECA documents. I contracted for and leased the following retrieval and reproduction equipment: Two microfilmers, five microfilm reader-printers, a Xerox 7000 reducer-copier and sorter, and a Xerox 3600 copier and sorter. Additional related office, filing, and storage equipment and supplies were purchased. After the election year, arrangements were made to return a portion of the leased equipment, that will result in a savings of approximately $17,000 in 1973. During 1972, as supervisory officer, I was responsible for approximately 1,700 candidates and 2,800 political committees in the numerous primary, special, runoff, and general elections for the 435 Representatives; the Delegates from the District of Columbia, Guam, the Virgin Islands; and the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico. In March 1972, we held 3 days of morning and afternoon seminars in the Longworth House Office Building, on the new election law for Members and their staffs. At these meetings, we distributed 2,800 election campaign information and reporting packets to them. During the remainder of 1972, we mailed an additional 35,000 election campaign packets to candidates and committees, followed by over 2 million pages of manuals, regulatory information, registration statements, and reporting forms. I also wrote to the Governor of each State, each secretary of state, and the chairman of the State Democratic and Republican Parties, soliciting their assistance to achieve maximum registration and reporting compliance. This resulted in the House receiving over 22,000 statements and reports filed pursuant to the FECA. The Federal Election Campaign Act requires that each document received be made available to the public not later than the end of the second day following its receipt. We more than met this requirement. These documents were microfilmed and computer-indexed to expedite availability, and were generally made available to the public within 24 hours after receipt. Over 117,000 pages of statements and reports were processed in this manner. During 1972, over 4,000 persons availed themselves of the opportunity to inspect House campaign documents, purchasing copies totaling 43,637 pages and 52 microfilm reels of statements and reports. Mr. Chairman, I have here examples of a candidate report, a committee report, a microfilm reel, and our index for you and the other members of the committee to examine. Upon receipt, each document was given a general audit for completeness and correctness. As a result, we sent over 3,500 "Notifications of Omissions or Errors in a Report of Receipts and Expenditures" to various candidates and committees. Further, we also sent over 1,900 registered dun letters to candidates and over 1,400 to committees, notifying them of their statutory or regulatory discrepancies. In accordance with section 308 of the FECA, I had my General Counsel lead investigations and hold hearings on various formal complaints that were received. I primarily utilized my immediate staff in such arrangements, but it was necessary to supplement their efforts with additional investigators hired on a contract basis for brief periods of time. During 1972, my immediate staff incurred $1,286.93 of investigative expenses, and contract investigators were paid $600 for periods when actually employed, with additional investigative expenses of $437.28. Total investigative costs for 1971 amounted to $2,724.21. Also, as prescribed by the FECA and House Resolution 819, after consulting with and receiving the benefit of advice from the Special Committee To Investigate Campaign Expenditures for the House of Representatives, 1972, I referred 2,702 apparent violations by candidates and 2,198 apparent violations by committees, to the Attorney General of the United States. Additionally, the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act essentially assigns custodial responsibilities to me. During 1972, 490 new lobbying registrations were received, and approximately 5,600 lobbying reports were submitted. The Lobbying Act also requires that the Secretary of the Senate and I publish jointly in the Congressional Record certain information contained in the lobbying reports and registrations. These quarterly publications appeared in the Congressional Record on May 24, September 18, October 10, and November 8, 1972. Two staff members in the Office of Records and Registration were employed full time, with Lobbying Act responsibilities. Fulfilling my responsibilities as Clerk of the House and as supervisory officer by (1) Administering the newly enacted FECA, (2) administering the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act, (3) maintaining the files and other records of House committees, including serving as House liaison with the National Archives, (4) making certain House payroll information available to the public, and (5) beginning the preparation of the annual and other reports as prescribed by the FECA, necessitated considerable overtime by the Office of Records and Registration staff. The full-time staff worked regularly on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as extending their normal workday. During 1972, this extra work totaled 4,200 hours. Other personnel throughout the Office of the Clerk also assisted whenever the House of Representatives' workload or their individual workloads permitted. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I respectfully submit two exhibits for your consideration and for the record with respect to the election campaign portion of my testimony. (The first is a detailed account of our elections' office operations, and the second is a cost analysis for calendar year 1972 of those operations under the Federal Election Campaign Act. During 1972, I have been sued more than any other Clerk of the House in its entire history. As a party defendant, 1972 was a continuous procession of overlapping cases brought by Ralph Nader, Common Cause, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Conservative Party of New York, and others. Liberals sued because they felt I was not doing enough under the FECA. Conservatives sued because they felt I was doing too much. Some wanted more regulation; some wanted less regulation. I am pleased to report that the House fared as well as it did because I meticulously fulfilled my responsibilities as assigned under the Federal Election Campaign Act. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, the Lord willing, I plan to continue to do so in the future. Letter of omission to registrations sent out.... Waivers to registrations granted... Committees required to file as of Dec. 31, 1972_ Letters of omission to reports sent out. Initial committee information packets sent out.. Letters of omission to candidate reports sent out-- 1, 336 435 1 5 525 1,893 9, 768 1,329 8,452 12, 752 1,700 8, 047 Candidates required to file as of Dec. 31, 1972. Followup candidate information packets sent out.. Special notices of $5,000 contributions received--- Reports filed under sec. 305 from other than committees.. Correspondence replied to and sent out__ Registered mail items sent out__. 829 950 750 7,512 6, 724 32 11 2, 067 1, 166 Hand receipts typed and sent out-- Computer receipts printed and sent out.. Persons utilizing public inspection area.... 4, 110 15, 450 7,235 117, 268 179, 082 4,000 635 43, 801 52 COST OF OPERATIONS FOR CALENDAR YEAR 1972 UNDER THE FEDERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN ACT OF 1971 (PUBLIC LAW 92-225) January February March April May June July August September October November December Total for 1972 calendar yea $10, 114. 12 $13,445.26 $14,691.47 $14,683.03 $14,752.79 $16, 466.72 (11) (14) (15) (15) (15) (18) Temporary.. Equipment: Purchased. Leased... $18,049.88 $145,872.61 (20) 2, 497.16 378.70 6,780.60 Supplies and services: Supplies.... 117,93 140, 19 717.45 446.73 1,081.72 162.12 Microfilm processing. 648.22 466.05 Telephone.. 3.47 10.11 21.41 43.72 190.48 289.14 348. 15 286. 16 489.61 306.28 247.21 88.84 2,324.58 1 Number in parenthesis is the number of permanent personnel employed in FECA efforts during each month in the Office of Records and Registration. 2 additional staff members were employed full time in lobbying act responsibilities and other efforts. Mr. JENNINGS. Also, Mr. Chairman, I have-as in the past-secured annual reports from the several offices operating under the Clerk which are available to the subcommittee for review, if you wish. These reports are evaluated in connection with our duty to manage and assist the several departments under the Clerk. I will be happy to answer any questions that you may wish to present, or to provide any additional information for the hearing record. Mr. CASEY. You have those reports with you? Mr. JENNINGS. Yes, sir. Here they are. These are detailed reports from the various departments submitted to me as to their activities. I don't think you would want to include them in he record. These include projections as to what they expect to do in the year ahead and what they did in the year past. Mr. CASEY. Go ahead. VACANCIES Mr. JENNINGS. Mr. Chairman, as of December 31, 1972, there were 15 vacancies in the Office of the Clerk. A list of these vacancies follows: I might say many of these have been filled. During normal operations vacancies run from 10 to 12 in any 1 month. Mr. CASEY. The requests for your Office are less than the 1973 appropriations; is that right? Mr. JENNINGS. A little less when you consider the appropriation and the supplemental. |