Form 3L is a new form required by the FEC to disclose bundled contributions from lobbyist/registrants and lobbyist/registrant PACs. A Committee must file the Form 3L if it received two or more bundled contributions forwarded by, or credited to, a lobbyist lobbyist/registrant or a lobbyist/registrant PAC and the contributions aggregate in excess of $16,000 in a covered period (see filing schedule below for a description of these periods). The rules went into effect on 3/19/09, and that is the first possible date on which information/transactions need to be captured.

Release Timeline

The FEC has laid out the following timeline for the release of electronic filing for the Form 3L. The initial coding is nearly done in all three platforms and we are awaiting the release of the vendor tools and the test site in order to work out any remaining bugs.

• 5/4 Vendor tools (VenPak) released
• 5/6 Vendor test site enabled for V6.4 filings
• *5/14 V6.4 live/production site enabled for 6.4 filings & V6.3 filings are cut off (note that there will be no period in which both formats are accepted simultaneously)

Filing Schedules

Authorized Committees of House and Senate Candidates

In calendar years where there is no regularly scheduled November general election committees must file quarterly reports on April 15, July 15, October 15, and January 31 of the following year. Quarterly reports filed on July 15 and January 31 must also include total reportable bundled contributions for the semi-annual covered periods of January 1 through June 30, and July 1 through December 31, respectively. Reports for the 12-Day Pre-Election covered period include activity from the day after the closing date of the last report filed through the 20th day before the election and are filed no later than the 12th day before any primary or general election in which the candidate seeks election. Reports for the 30-Day Post-General Election covered period include activity from the day after the closing date of the last report filed through the 20th day after the election and are filed no later than 30 days after the general election.

Political Party Committees and Leadership PACs and Authorized Committees of Presidential Candidates

A party committee or Leadership PAC with bundled contributions in excess of the reporting threshold during a covered period files FEC Form 3L at the same time as its FEC Form 3X. However, reporting committees that file Form 3X on a monthly basis may choose to follow a quarterly schedule for filing Form
3L. The Quarterly filing schedule is described above. Reports for the monthly covered periods must be filed no later than 20 days after the last day of the month.

Reporting Obligations

As stated above the Form 3L must be filed if a committee receives two or more bundled contributions forwarded by, or credited to, a lobbyist lobbyist/registrant or a lobbyist/registrant PAC and the contributions aggregate in excess of $16,000 in a covered period. The report consists of the Form 3L, Schedule A, and Schedule B. The Form 3L itself is simply a summary page where a committee will disclose its name, address, FEC ID, the coverage dates of the report, and amount of bundled contributions. Schedule A is used to report the full name and amount of bundled contributions from lobbyists. The individual contributions that make up the reported bundled contributions are not reported here. Those contributions are reported on the Form 3, Form 3X, or Form 3P. Schedule B is used to report refunds of any portion of any reported bundled contributions. The refund to the Lobbyist/Registrant is reported here. The refund to the individual who contributed is reported on the Form 3, Form 3X, or Form 3P rescpectively.

Data Entry

Campaign Manager5/PAC Manager 5

A new Contribution Type has been added to accommodate the reporting of bundled contributions. In order to disclose receipts on Schedule A of the Form 3L use the contribution type “Bundled”. This CT will work for Entity Type Individual and PAC. Contributions that make up the bundled contribution will be entered as they were before and still appear on the Form 3 or Form 3X.

Refunds on Schedule B will pull to the Form 3L is the Disbursement Kind “Bundled Refund.”

360

Enter the bundler as you would an Individual or PAC. On the right-hand side of the screen click “Enable Fundraiser”. Click the checkbox labeled “Is Registered” and then click update bundler settings.

Next enter the receipt from the Individual giving the contribution and click save. Next click the Additional Details button and search for the Bundler in the Fundraiser ID section

360 will automatically aggregate the bundled contributions and report the amount from the lobbyist/registrant on Schedule A of the Form 3L and the individual contributions on Schedule A of the Form 3, 3X, or 3P.

Refunds are entered in the same manner and the program will automatically aggregate the refunds on Form 3L and disclose the refunds to each individual/PAC on Form 3, 3X, or 3P.

BackOffice

Bundled Contributions are handled through the Soft Allocation feature. Adding a Soft Allocation to a monetary or in-kind contribution is a similar process to adding a partner. Under Soft Allocations, enter the name of the individual or organization click Find and Add. The amount will default to the full amount of the contribution.
An image of the Soft Allocation field appears below.

A refund is handled in the same screen, the soft allocation screen, but that contribution that is being refunded must be marked as a reversal. Use the Reporting Code “Refunded Contribution” - this totals the refunds and will show up on Line 20a (on FEC Form 3) and lists the refunds in Schedule E (for CA Form 460).

If you have a reversal, DO NOT CHECK THE REVERSAL BOX ON THE ORIGINAL TRANSACTIONS. Instead, add a new contribution for the same amount & check the reversal box on that transaction. This way you’ll have two transactions that cancel each other out.

You just need to add it as a reversed contribution:

1. Go to the Donor’s Record.
2. Select Contribution under Add a Transaction.
3. Click the Reversal box and fill in the amount of the refund and the date.
4. Save changes.