Senate power players quarrel over fate of e-filing

Millions of Americans e-filed their income taxes, but when senators submitted required reports about their campaign fundraising and expenses, most ignored computers in favor of paper.

Just 21 lawmakers voluntarily e-filed copies of their first-quarter reports to meet the filing deadline. That’s about a three-fold increase from 2011 -- although it’s far from a majority in the august body that has long cherished its old-school traditions. Neither senators nor Senate candidates are required to e-file their campaign finance reports -- unlike the thousands of political action committees, presidential candidates or their colleagues in the US House of Representatives.

Currently, senators must submit their campaign finance reports on paper to the secretary of the Senate, where they are scanned and then forwarded to the FEC. In a process that lasts weeks, the agency subsequently prints the documents and delivers them to a private contractor, which performs the data entry work necessary to make the information searchable and sortable in electronic databases. A bipartisan bill sponsored by Tester, however, would change that. The switch would save taxpayers about $500,000 a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.