Hearings, Reports and Prints of the Senate Committee on Commerce

1 not reverse or revise its determination, action, or failure to

2 act, and the petitioner remains aggrieved, he may bring

3 a civil action for judicial review of the matter.

JURISDICTION OF DISTRICT COURTS

5 SEC. 17. (a) Each United States district court shall have 6 jurisdiction of actions brought under this Act. Such action 7 may be brought in the United States district court for the 8 District of Columbia, in the United States district court for 9 the judicial district in the State in which the unlawful action or practice is alleged to have been committed, or in the 11 United States district court for judicial district in which the 12 candidate who has or may benefit from the action of the 13 respondent is running for Federal elective office.

(b) In any action brought under this Act the summons 15 and subpenas for witnesses may run into any other district. 16 (c) Any action (or appeal therefrom) brought under

17 this Act shall be advanced on the docket of the court in which 18 filed, and put ahead of all other actions (other than other 19 actions brought under this Act), to the greatest possible 20 extent.

22 SEC. 18. (a) A willful violation of the contribution or 23 expenditure limits imposed by sections 12 (a), 12 (c), and 24 13, or a willful misuse of any transfers received from 25 the fund, or a willful falsification of any record or state

ment required to be submitted or retained by the candidate 2 under this Act shall be punishable by a fine of not less than 3 $5,000, nor more than $50,000 or the total amount of trans4 fers received from the fund whichever is greater, and not less 5 than six months nor more than five years' imprisonment. 6 (b) Violation of any other provision of this Act, or of 7 any rule or regulation promulgated by the Board under this 8 Act, shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $10,000, 9 or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.

(c) Except in prosecutions for willful falsification of 11 records or statements under subsection (a), no evidence ob12 tained for any record, statement, or application required to 13 be kept or submitted by a natural person by this Act shall 14 be used, directly or indirectly, as evidence in a criminal pro15 ceeding, against that person with respect to a violation occur16 ring prior to or concurrently with the filing of such statement or application or the making of such record.

STATE LAWS NOT AFFECTED

SEC. 19. Nothing in this Act shall be considered to 20 invalidate or make inapplicable any provision of any State 21 law, except where compliance with that provision of law 22 would result in a violation of a provision of this Act.

2 23

RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER FEDERAL ELECTION LAWS

SEC. 20. (a) The Board shall consult from time to time.

25 with the Comptroller General, the Secretary of the Senate,

and the Clerk of the House of Representatives, the Federal

2 Communications Commission and with other Federal officers

3 charged with the administration of laws relating to Federal 4 elections, in order to develop as much consistency and co5 ordination with the administration of such other laws as the

6 provisions of this Act permit. The Board shall use the same or comparable data as that used in the administration of such 8 other laws whenever possible.

9 (b) (1) Section 301 (e) of the Federal Election Cam

10 paign Reform Act of 1971 is amended by

121

272

and

(A) striking "and" at the end of paragraph (4);

(B) redesignating paragraph (5) as (6), and inserting after paragraph (4) the following new paragraph:

"(5) a transfer of funds to a candidate's account made out of the Congressional Campaign Assistance Fund under section 8 of the Congressional Election Finance Act of 1973; and".

(2) Section 301 (f) of the Federal Election Campaign

21 Reform Act of 1971 is amended by

(A) striking "and" at the end of paragraph (2);

(B) inserting "and" after the semicolon in paragraph (3); and

"(4) a payment of campaign expenses made out of

amounts received from the Congressional Campaign As

sistance Fund under section 8 of the Congressional Election Finance Act of 1973;".

SEC. 21. If any provision of this Act, or the application 7 thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the 8 validity of the remainder of this Act and the application of 9 that provision to other persons and circumstances shall not 10 be affected by that holding.

AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS

SEC. 22. (a) There are authorized to be appropriated

13 to the fund such amounts, in addition to the amount initially 14 appropriated under section 4, as may be necessary to carry 15 out the operations of the fund.

(b) There are authorized to be appropriated to the 17 Board such sums as may be necessary to carry out the other 18 provisions of this Act.

Senator PASTORE. S. 372 would amend the existing "Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971" in two respects:

1. Repeal the equal time requirement of section 315 of the Communications Act as it applies to candidates for President and Vice President.

I want to say a word or two on that. We have tried over the years since 1960 to do something about repealing the equal opportunity provision of section 315 insofar as it applies to the Office of the President and Vice President. We suspended it in 1960, and that led to the socalled famous debates between Kennedy and Nixon.

Maybe insofar as some people are concerned, the results of that debate left a sour taste in their mouths; but the fact still remains that was the first time you had a direct confrontation between two candidates for the Office of the Presidency.

Now, it must be said the chances are that was made possible because neither one at the time was an incumbent. We found that the successors to President Kennedy were rather reluctant to engage in a debate. They never said so categorically, but every time we tried to do anything about repealing the provisions of section 315, in a roundabout way, we found out that there was a little bit of a displeasure as to this in the White House, whether the incumbent was a Republican or a Democrat.

Now, it was because of that reluctance when the networks came before this committee the last time, I was very emphatic that if we repealed section 315 and the networks gave free time the candidates themselves should have the choice of the format. If they wanted a confrontation with one another, it would be their decision.

On the other hand, if the candidates did not decide to do it that way, and wanted to dictate their own format, they could very easily do it. And the networks said they were willing to give substantial amounts of time to all of the significant presidential candidates free of charge, and in a format of their choosing. Why anyone is against that is beyond me, especially in view of the cost of buying television time on a national hookup. Here are the networks willing to give it free, format at the choice of the candidate himself.

I could never understand why anyone opposed it, but they did. And as a consequence, we had to knock it out. The opponents' argument is if you do it for the Presidency, you ought to do it for the Governors and Senators and Congressmen. And, of course, there is no analogy to be drawn at all in those cases because a Senator or Congressman runs either on a State, or district, or local level, and the President runs on the national level. And it is only there that the national networks come into play. On the local level, it is only the local stations that come into play.

And it is my experience back home that enough time is given to the local licensees who, after all, are interested in the elections for Federal office in their own State. And I think they have been rather generous in that respect.

But be that as it may, I hope their people will understand the situation better, because in 1976 both of the candidates for the office of the Presidency will not be incumbents.

2. The second thing S. 372 would do is extend the existing limitation on media and telephone spending to include any expenditures whatso

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