Federal Election Commission

Campaign-finance disclosure is not this $43.2 million

FEC Form 3 filings, PAC reports, and super PAC independent-expenditure notices are a different public database. $43,199,193.32 is what the Commission itself obligated on federal awards through FY2026—filing-system contractors, IT, facilities, legal support, and other instruments tagged to CGAC 360. A presidential cycle with more money reported does not automatically raise this total. A modernization contract can raise it in an off year.

Ninety-five awards is a thin book. Dividing $43,199,193.32 by 95 yields about $454,728 per award. That high mean on a low count fits a small regulator buying a modest number of support vehicles, including potentially large systems work. The packet has no median and no split between IT and other awards.

95 awards omit the enforcement docket

Matters Under Review, conciliation agreements, and civil penalties are FEC enforcement statistics. They are not the 95 USAspending rows. Civil penalties paid to the government are receipts, not Commission obligations. Mixing them with $43.2 million would confuse fines collected with contracts signed.

Commissioner and staff salaries generally never appear as awards. The $43,199,193.32 understates the FEC’s full operating cost if a reader expected the award file to equal the appropriation. It is complete as an award ledger.

Questions

How much has the FEC obligated on USAspending?

The Federal Election Commission shows $43,199,193.32 in obligations through FY2026 across 95 awards. Awarding-agency CGAC 360 is the filter. The total is not campaign contributions, independent expenditures, or civil penalties collected. USAspending.gov records this as awarding-agency obligations through FY2026, not cash outlays. The live table for CGAC 360 is the source for the current 95-award book.

Why does the FEC have only 95 awards?

The extract counts 95 instruments for CGAC 360. Dividing $43.2 million by that count yields about $454,728 per award. A small disclosure agency often buys fewer support contracts than a grant-maker issues. The packet has no median. That figure uses only the packet totals. The extract has no median and no contract-versus-assistance split. FY2026 is the warehouse cutoff, not a single-year appropriation.

What is agency code 360?

360 is the USAspending awarding-agency CGAC identifier for the Federal Election Commission. SpendingVault uses it in /agencies/360/. It is not an FEC committee ID. SpendingVault URLs under the agency path filter to that CGAC identifier. It is an accounting tag, not a quality score. Totals on this page are obligations through FY2026.

Does this $43 million include money campaigns spent?

No. Campaign disbursements are reported on FEC forms, not as Commission awards. This page reports FEC awarding-agency obligations of $43,199,193.32 through FY2026. Outlays on those 95 awards are unpublished in the packet. Outlays are unpublished in this packet, so this page does not estimate cash already paid. Refresh the agency page after USAspending updates rather than treating the current stock as frozen.