Congress approved a compromise bill just before its fall recess exempting state and local PACs from reporting requirements under the Stealth PAC law of 2000 and requiring data from reports to be made available on the Internet in a searchable format. President Bush signed the bill into law a week later.

The new law is designed to avoid duplicative reporting for PACs that work solely on state or local elections and file reports with state or local government, those whose reports are made public and those PAC’s which federal candidates do not control and in which federal candidates do not “materially participate.” The exemption for these groups, many of which were unaware of the law and out of compliance, will date back to the effective date of the law in 2000.

The public will have dramatically improved access to information on soft money expenditures by PACs involved in federal elections as a result of improved disclosure requirements. The bill requires these PACs to report the date and purpose of expenditures of $500 or more and the date of each contribution of $200 or more. If contributions or expenditures exceed $50,000 in a calendar year the reports must be filed electronically. As of June 30, 2003, the IRS is required to make this information available on the web within 48 hours of filing. The database of reports must be searchable by a wide variety of factors, including name, state, zip code, general purpose and names of directors. It must also be downloadable.

A detailed explanation of the new law is available from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.