§ 1–1163.04. Duties of the Director of Campaign Finance.

The Director of Campaign Finance shall:

(1) Develop and furnish prescribed forms, materials, and electronic formats or mediums, including electronic or digital signatures, for persons to make the reports and statements required to be filed with the Director of Campaign Finance pursuant to this subchapter;

(1A) Require that all reports filed with the Director of Campaign Finance pursuant to this subchapter be submitted electronically; provided, that reasonable accommodations shall be made where an actual hardship in complying with this paragraph is demonstrated to the Director of Campaign Finance;

(1B)(A) Publish all information submitted by recipients and agencies pursuant to sections of this subchapter online in a publicly accessible, widely accepted, nonproprietary, searchable, platform-independent, sortable, computer-readable format within 24 hours of filing. The database of electronic filings and other data within the portal shall be available via bulk download from the portal website;

(B) For the purposes of searching receipts of contributions and expenditures, "sortable" means able to be downloaded and filtered by street address, city, state, or zip code of the contributor or payee;

(2) Develop a filing, coding, and cross-indexing system consistent with the purposes of this subchapter;

(3) Make the reports and statements filed with him or her available for public inspection and copying, commencing as soon as practicable, but not later than the end of the 2nd day following the day during which it was received, and to permit and facilitate copying of any report or statement, as requested by any person, at reasonable cost to the person, except any information copied from the reports and statements shall not be sold or utilized by any person for the purpose of soliciting contributions or for any commercial purpose;

(4) Preserve paper and electronic copies of reports and statements for a period of at least 10 years from date of receipt;

(5) Compile and maintain a current list of all reports and statements on file pertaining to each candidate;

(6) Repealed.

(7)(A) Make any reports prepared under this subchapter available online, including a biennial report summarizing the receipts and expenditures of candidates, political committees, political action committees, and independent expenditure committees, during the prior 2-year period.

(B) The Director of Campaign Finance shall publish the biennial report required in subparagraph (A) of this paragraph by December 31 of each odd-numbered year. The report shall describe the receipts and expenditures of candidates for Mayor, Attorney General, Chairman and members of the Council, members of the State Board of Education, shadow Senator, and shadow Representative, but shall exclude candidates for Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. The report shall provide, at a minimum, the following information:

(i) A summary of each candidate's receipts, in dollar amount and percentage terms, by categories of contributors that the Director of Campaign Finance considers appropriate, such as the candidate himself or herself, individuals, political committees, corporations, partnerships, and labor organizations;

(ii) A summary of each candidate's receipts, in dollar amount and percentage terms, by the size of the contribution, including contributions of:

(I) $500 or more;

(II) $250 or more but less than $500;

(III) $100 or more but less than $250; and

(IV) Less than $100;

(iii) The total amount of a candidate's receipts and expenditures for primary and general elections, respectively, when applicable;

(iv) A summary of each candidate's expenditures, in dollar amount and percentage terms, by operating expenditures, transfers to other authorized committees, loan repayments, and refunds of contributions; and

(v) A summary of the receipts and expenditures of political committees, political action committees, and independent expenditure committees using categories considered appropriate by the Director of Campaign Finance;

(7A) Require a candidate for public office and the treasurer of any political committee, political action committee, or independent expenditure committee to attend a training program conducted by the Director of Campaign Finance concerning compliance with this subchapter. Such training shall:

(A) Be conducted in person, or, during a period of time for which the Mayor has declared a public health emergency pursuant to § 7-2304.01, online, although online materials may be used to supplement the training;

(A-i) Include content on the Fair Elections Program and the requirements of this subchapter pertaining to business contributors, including their affiliated entities, and covered contractors;

(B) Be completed in accordance with a schedule to be published by the Director of Campaign Finance, or by individual request as the Director of Campaign Finance deems appropriate; and

(C) Upon completion, result in the completion of an oath or affirmation to follow the District's campaign finance laws, to be developed by the Director of Campaign Finance. The names of the participants and those participants who have not completed the training shall be prominently displayed on the website of the Campaign Finance Board;

(8) Make audits and field investigations with respect to reports and statements filed under this subchapter, and with respect to alleged failures to file any report or statement required under the provisions of this subchapter;

(8A) Administer the Fair Elections Program established by § 1-1163.32a; and

(9) Perform such other duties as the Campaign Finance Board may require.

(Apr. 27, 2012, D.C. Law 19-124, § 304, 59 DCR 1862; Dec. 13, 2013, D.C. Law 20-60, § 302(b), 60 DCR 15487; Feb. 22, 2014, D.C. Law 20-79, § 2(f), 61 DCR 153; May 5, 2018, D.C. Law 22-94, § 2(b)(1), 65 DCR 2847; Mar. 13, 2019, D.C. Law 22-250, § 6(i), 66 DCR 985; Mar. 16, 2021, D.C. Law 23-192, § 3(d), 68 DCR 001073.)

Section References

This section is referenced in § 1-1163.02.

Effect of Amendments

The 2013 amendment by D.C. Law 20-60, in the introductory paragraph of (7), substituted “the Council, Mayor, Attorney General” for “the Mayor, Council” and substituted “candidates for the Chairman and members of the Council, Mayor, and Attorney General” for “candidates for Mayor, the Chairman and members of the Council.”

The 2014 amendment by D.C. Law 20-79 added (1A), (1B) and (7A); and rewrote (7).

Applicability

Section 7183 of D.C. Law 24-45 repealed section 10(a) of D.C. Law 22-250 removing the applicability provision impacting this section. Therefore the amendment of this section by Law 22-250 has been implemented.

Section 7183 of D.C. Act 24-159 repealed section 10(a) of D.C. Law 22-250 removing the applicability provision impacting this section. Therefore the amendment of this section by Law 22-250 has been implemented.

Applicability of D.C. Law 22-250: § 10 of D.C. Law 22-250 provided that the change made to this section by § 6(i) of D.C. Law 22-250 is subject to the inclusion of the law’s fiscal effect in an approved budget and financial plan. Therefore that amendment has not been implemented.

Section 3 of D.C. Law 22-168 amended section 3 of D.C. Law 22-94, removing the applicability restriction impacting this section. Therefore the amendment of this section by section 2(b)(1) of D.C. Law 22-94 has been implemented as of November 7, 2018.

Applicability of D.C. Law 22-94: § 3 of D.C. Law 22-94 provided that the change made to this section by § 2(b)(1) of D.C. Law 22-94 is subject to the inclusion of the law’s fiscal effect in an approved budget and financial plan. Therefore that amendment has not been implemented.

Section 7009 of D.C. Law 21-160 repealed § 3 of D.C. Law 20-79. Therefore the changes made to this section by D.C. Law 20-79 have been given effect.

Emergency Legislation

For temporary (90 days) amendment of this section, see § 803(b)(1) of Coronavirus Support Second Congressional Review Emergency Amendment Act of 2020 (D.C. Act 23-405, Aug. 19, 2020, 67 DCR 10235).

For temporary (90 days) amendment of this section, see § 803(b)(1) of Coronavirus Support Congressional Review Emergency Amendment Act of 2020 (D.C. Act 23-328, June 8, 2020, 67 DCR 7598).

For temporary (90 days) amendment of this section, see § 803(b)(1) of Coronavirus Support Emergency Amendment Act of 2020 (D.C. Act 23-326, May 27, 2020, 67 DCR 7045).

For temporary (90 days) amendment of this section, see § 3(b) of the Election Code Conforming Emergency Act of 2013 (D.C. Act 20-143, July 31, 2013, 60 DCR 11799, 20 DCSTAT 1990).

Temporary Legislation

For temporary (225 days) amendment of this section, see § 803(b)(1) of Coronavirus Support Temporary Amendment Act of 2020 (D.C. Law 23-130, Oct. 9, 2020, 67 DCR 8622).

Editor's Notes

Applicability of D.C. Law 20-60: Section 401(b) of 20-60 provided that § 302 of the act shall apply as of December 13, 2013.

Applicability of D.C. Law 20-79: Section 3 of D.C. Law 20-79 provided that the act shall apply upon the latest of: (1) The inclusion of the fiscal effect of the act in an approved budget and financial plan, as certified by the Chief Financial Officer to the Budget Director of the Council in a certification published by the Council in the District of Columbia Register; or (2) January 31, 2015.

A certification dated February 4, 2015, that the fiscal effect of the Campaign Finance Reform and Transparency Amendment Act of 2013, D.C. Law 20-79, has been included in an approved budget and financial plan was published in the D.C. Register on March 13, 2015 (62 DCR 2988).