BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                      



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                  AB 2691|
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                                    CONSENT


          Bill No:  AB 2691
          Author:   Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee
          Amended:  As introduced
          Vote:     27

           
           SENATE ELECTIONS & CONST. AMDMTS COMM.  :  5-0, 6/19/12
          AYES:  Correa, La Malfa, Gaines, Lieu, Yee
           
          ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  73-0, 5/10/12 (Consent) - See last page 
            for vote


           SUBJECT  :    Political Reform Act

           SOURCE  :     Author


           DIGEST  :    This bill repeals obsolete provisions of the 
          Political Reform Act of 1974 (PRA) related to the online or 
          electronic disclosure of campaign and lobbying information.

           ANALYSIS  :    

          Existing law: 

          1. Creates the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), 
             and makes it responsible for the impartial, effective 
             administration and implementation of the PRA. 

          2. Requires all candidates and committees that are required 
             to file campaign reports in connection with a state 
             elective office or state measure to file those reports 
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             online or electronically if the cumulative amount of 
             contributions received, expenditures made, loans made, 
             or loans received is $25,000 or more. 

          3. Requires general purpose committees, including political 
             party committees and small contributor committees, that 
             cumulatively receive contributions or make expenditures 
             of $25,000 or more to support or oppose candidates for 
             any elective state office or state measure, to file 
             campaign reports online or electronically. 

          4. Requires slate mailer organizations to file campaign 
             reports online or electronically if the cumulative 
             reportable payments received or made for the purposes of 
             producing slate mailers is $25,000 or more. 

          5. Requires lobbyists, lobbying firms, lobbyist employers, 
             and other persons required to file periodic lobbying 
             disclosure reports to file such reports online or 
             electronically if the total amount of any category of 
             reportable payments, expenses, contributions, gifts, or 
             other items is $2,500 or more in a calendar quarter. 

          This bill: 

          1. Repeals an obsolete provision of the PRA that requires 
             the Secretary of State (SOS) to implement an online or 
             electronic disclosure program in connection with the 
             2000 state primary election and specified lobbying 
             activities. 

          2. Repeals an obsolete provision of the PRA that required 
             all candidates and ballot measure committees that were 
             required to file campaign disclosure reports in 
             connection with a statewide elective office or a state 
             measure appearing on the November 1998 ballot to provide 
             a copy of any required report on a computer disk in 
             either an ASCII or PDF format. 

          3. Repeals an obsolete provision of the PRA that 
             appropriated $1.1 million in 1997 from the General Fund 
             to the SOS for the purposes of developing an online and 
             electronic disclosure system. 


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          4. Makes corresponding changes. 

           Background  

           Electronic campaign disclosure  .  SB 49 (Karnette), Chapter 
          866, Statutes of 1997, enacted the Online Disclosure Act, 
          requiring the SOS to develop a process whereby campaign and 
          lobbying reports and statements required to be filed 
          pursuant to the PRA could be filed online or electronically 
          and viewed by the public online.  Among other provisions, 
          SB 49 established specific electronic reporting 
          requirements for the November 1998 and March 2000 statewide 
          elections, and established specific electronic reporting 
          requirements for lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist 
          employers for part of the 2000 calendar year.  Because 
          those provisions were effective only for specific time 
          periods, those provisions of the PRA are now obsolete; the 
          ongoing requirements for campaign and lobbying reports to 
          be filed electronically are located elsewhere in the PRA. 

          Additionally, SB 49 added a provision to the PRA that 
          appropriated $1.1 million for the development of the online 
          and electronic disclosure system. Because the online and 
          electronic disclosure system has already been built and 
          this money has been spent, this provision of law is also 
          obsolete. 
          This bill repeals these obsolete provisions of the PRA.  
          Additionally, this bill makes corresponding changes by 
          deleting cross references to one of those obsolete sections 
          in another section of the PRA. 

           PRA  .  California voters passed an initiative in 1974 
          (Proposition 9) that created the FPPC and codified 
          significant restrictions and prohibitions on candidates, 
          officeholders and lobbyists.  That initiative is commonly 
          known as the PRA.  Amendments to the PRA that are not 
          submitted to the voters, such as those contained in this 
          bill, must further the purposes of the initiative and 
          require a two-thirds vote of both houses of the 
          Legislature. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  No   
          Local:  No


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           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  5/20/12)

          Fair Political Practices Commission

           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    According to the author's office, 
          this is one of the Assembly Elections & Redistricting 
          Committee's annual omnibus bills, containing various minor 
          and technical changes to the PRA.  This bill repeals 
          obsolete provisions of the PRA.  Additionally, this bill 
          makes corresponding changes by deleting cross-references to 
          one of those obsolete sections in another section of the 
          PRA.


           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  73-0, 5/10/12
          AYES:  Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, 
            Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, 
            Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos, 
            Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Davis, Dickinson, 
            Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Beth Gaines, 
            Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell, Grove, Hagman, 
            Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Roger Hernández, Hill, 
            Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jones, Knight, Lara, Logue, Bonnie 
            Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell, 
            Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Pan, Perea, 
            Portantino, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, 
            Torres, Valadao, Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, 
            John A. Pérez
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Cook, Fletcher, Furutani, Jeffries, 
            Norby, Olsen, V. Manuel Pérez


          DLW:mw  6/20/12   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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