The Deliberate Delay in Senate Campaign Finance Reporting

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Senators have largely protected themselves from critical review of end-of-campaign donations by not requiring that their spending reports be filed electronically. As a result, most Senate candidates file paper reports, whidch are scanned and then key-punched into an electronic system,. The procedure often takes six weeks. Reports then go to the Secretary of the Senate and are placed on the Federal Election Commission Web site in a non-searchable page-by-page format. All that means the public doesn’t see the report until after election day. The Washington Post reports there is growing sentiment for change. (9/18/06)