Federal Election Commission Main Page
September 26, 1980
CERTIFIED MAIL
RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
ADVISORY OPINION 1980-101
Mr. Marvin I. Weinberger
3 Carleton Road
Belmont, Massachusetts 02178
Dear Mr. Weinberger:
This responds to your letter of August 21, 1980 requesting
an advisory opinion concerning application of the Federal
Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended ("the Act"), and
Commission regulations to the use of information found in
Federal Election Commission documents.
According to your letter you intend to publish and sell
a directory of comprehensive information concerning Political
Action Committees ("PACs"). You explain that the directory
would facilitate coordination among PACs and help candidates
better target their funding requests. The directory would not,
however, identify individuals who made contributions to the
listed PACs. With this in mind and concerned with Commission
regulations which address use of information, specifically 11
CFR 104.15, you ask what, if any, information that PACs supply
in reports to the Commission which is then published in FEC
documents may be commercially republished and under what conditions.
You further ask, if direct commercial republication
of FEC PAC data is prohibited, whether information may be
solicited directly from individual PACs and the responses
reprinted. In soliciting information from the PACs, you ask
whether you may use a PAC address list compiled from FEC
reports or a commercially prepared PAC mail list?
2 U.S.C. SS 438(a)(4) generally allows for inspection and
copying of reports and statements filed with the Commission
but prohibits the sale or use of such copied information to
solicit contributions or for any other commercial purpose
with the exception of using the name and address of any
political committee to solicit contributions from such
committee. Commission regulations, specifically SS 104.15
which elaborates on SS 438(a)(4) states, in part,
(a) [A]ny information copied or otherwise
obtained, from any report or statement, or
any copy, reproduction, or publication thereof,
filed with the Commission, shall not be sold
or used by any person for the purpose of
soliciting contributions or for any commercial
purpose, except that the name and address
of any political committee may be used to solicit
contributions from such committee.
An exception to this restriction is found in subsection (c)
of 104.15. This exception allows for the use of information
copied or otherwise obtained from reports filed with the
Commission in newspapers, books, or the like, but only
if the principal purpose of these communications is not
to communicate any contributor information for the purpose
of soliciting contributions or for other commercial purposes.
This regulation generally focuses on prohibiting the use
of information copied or obtained from reports filed with the
Commission. It specifically focuses on prohibiting the use of
any contributor information found in those reports.
In a number of advisory opinions the Commission has
focused on the apparent Congressional intent behind 2 U.S.C.
SS 438(a) (4). Citing to the language of the proponents of
this provision concerning use of information filed with
the Commission, those opinions recognize that the principal,
if not sole, purpose of the restriction on use of information
was to protect contributor information and lists from being
used for commercial purposes. See Advisory Opinions 1980-78,
1977-66. It appears from the legislative history of the
1979 Amendments to the Act, that a commercial vendor may
compile the names and addresses of political committees for
the purpose of selling those names but that the prohibition
on the copying and use of names and addresses of individual
contributors is crucial and so was maintained. H.R. Rep. No.
422, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. 23 (1979).
In light of the intent behind 2 U.S.C. SS 438(a)(4) and the
language of 11 CFR 104.15 the Commission concludes that, except
for information identifying individual contributors, any of
the information found in FEC documents or documents filed
with the Commission may be used in the subject publication.
This conclusion makes it unnecessary for the Commission to
address your other questions.
This response constitutes an advisory opinion concerning
the application of the Act, or regulations prescribed by the
Commission, to the specific transaction or activity set forth
in your request. See 2 U.S.C. SS 437f.