For the fourth time Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) introduced a bill to require senators to file their campaign finance reports electronically, rather than in paper. S.482 currently has 25 bipartisan co-sponsors. Unlike presidential and House candidates, the Senate does not require the electronic filing of these reports. "Under the current paper filing system, the FEC's detailed coding, which allows for more sophisticated searches and analysis, is completed over a week later for Senate reports than for House reports. This means that the final disclosure reports covering contributions made during the first two weeks of October are often not subject to detailed scrutiny before the election."

OMB Watch has supported this measure for two years. Previously the bill was blocked by Senator John Ensign (R-NV) who wanted to add an amendment that required outside groups filing ethics complaints against senators to disclose their donors. According to BNA Money and Politics ($$); "Supporters of the electronic filing bill have indicated recently that they now believe Ensign would not block the measure again this year."

Feingold's press release quotes co-sponsor Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS); "This important legislation will require the Senate to operate with the same transparency in campaign filing that the President and Members of the House of Representatives already use. I hope the Senate will consider the bill in a timely manner and approve it so that we can begin to operate under a modern filing system." It also references Campaign Finance Institute's estimation that the bill could save taxpayers $250,000 per year. Hopefully, this measure can finally be enacted into law.