Pick the filing system before the report

House, Senate, and presidential committees file with the Federal Election Commission. A state or local candidate may never appear in an FEC report. Their money, when it is disclosed, is in a state or local system. The opposition research page keeps those systems apart, and FEC candidate research is the pass on committees, Form 3, Form 3P, receipts, disbursements, and amendments. This page is the schedule pass. It does not repeat that overview.

Match the committee before a figure moves. The report identifies the committee, the treasurer, and the office. A principal campaign committee, a joint fundraising committee, and an outside-spending report are different filers. Cite the committee the sentence is about. A report from a different committee is not added into this committee's total. Committee search is at the FEC's committee browser, inside the campaign finance data catalog.

Read Schedule A as itemized receipts

House and Senate authorized committees report on Form 3. The FEC forms page links the form and the instructions: FEC forms and instructions. The Form 3 instructions PDF, fecfrm3i.pdf, was last modified on the FEC host on 3 February 2025 when this guide was checked. Open the PDF. A later revision replaces it. The notes below are that file, not a restatement from memory of a threshold.

The instructions describe Schedule A as the schedule that provides detailed information for each receipt required to be itemized. A separate Schedule A supports each line number on the Detailed Summary Page. Categories of receipts are not combined on the same Schedule A. For each itemized receipt during the reporting period, the committee reports the identification the instructions require.

For an individual contributor the instructions tell the committee to itemize, those instructions require the full name, mailing address, occupation, and name of employer, the date and amount of the contribution, the aggregate election cycle-to-date total, and whether the contribution is for a primary, general, or other election. The aggregate that triggers itemization is printed in the instructions. Use the figure in the PDF you opened. Unitemized contributions are a different line on the summary. They are not a hidden list of names.

A sentence about receipts uses the receipt lines. Grouping itemized Schedule A rows can show concentration in the report: one employer, one committee, a set of dates. The grouping supports a sentence about the filings. It stops before a sentence about why the donor gave. An employer name is the employer the filing reports. The public catalog of receipt rows is the FEC's receipts browser. The image of the report remains the document to cite.

Read Schedule B as itemized disbursements

The same Form 3 instructions describe Schedule B as the schedule for each disbursement required to be itemized. They say not to combine more than one category of disbursements on the same Schedule B. Each Schedule B identifies the Detailed Summary Page line it supports, and the committee's full name.

For each disbursement required to be itemized, the instructions require the full name, mailing address, date, amount, and purpose. The instructions define purpose as a brief statement or description of why the disbursement was made. They give adequate examples, including dinner expenses, media, salary, polling, and travel. They also name descriptions that do not meet the requirement, including "advance," "election day expenses," "miscellaneous," and "outside services." If the disbursement is a loan repayment or a contribution refund, the instructions say the category name is enough. A purpose that the instructions call inadequate stays inadequate in the memo. Quote the purpose field. Do not upgrade it.

Schedule A and Schedule B answer different questions. Adding them produces a figure the report does not print. A cycle-to-date column is the cycle figure the report prints. It is a different number from the period total. The disbursement browser is at fec.gov/data/disbursements. Cite the report image for the line you use.

The same instructions describe the schedules around those two. Schedule C shows loans, endorsements, and loan guarantees the committee receives or makes. Schedule D shows debts and obligations owed to or by the committee that are required to be disclosed. A debt line is not a disbursement line. A loan is not a contribution. Name the schedule the sentence uses.

Keep the summary, the period, and the amendment

Schedule A and Schedule B support lines on the Detailed Summary Page. The summary line is the total the committee entered for that category. The schedule is the itemized support. When the two disagree on the report you opened, cite both and say they disagree. Do not pick the smoother number.

Presidential committees file Form 3P. The instructions PDF is fecfrm3pi.pdf, linked from the same forms page. Read a presidential report from those instructions. The national-campaign pass is FEC filings for a presidential race. Filing calendars and the amendment rule are on the FEC's filing reports page and the amendments page. Cite the report that was opened. A later amendment is a new sentence about the same period. The two reports are not added together.

State disclosures use the state's form

When the office is state or local, leave the FEC section empty or write that no federal report was found. Then open the state's disclosure. The FEC publishes the Combined Federal/State Disclosure and Election Directory and a page of state election offices. The directory PDF is the July 2025 revision.

OppIntell's state hubs link the campaign finance pages confirmed from that directory and from the other official pages in the compilation verified on 2026-10-16. Start at candidate research by state, open the state, and use the campaign finance disclosure links. The same list is on the methodology page. A gap note means no live official page was confirmed for that category on the verification date. A state form has its own line names. Do not relabel them Schedule A and Schedule B unless the state form uses those names.

Some state reports are held out of candidate-facing profiles and research books when the source requires permission before the copied information is reused commercially. Alabama FCPA reports are one such hold until a finance-specific permission is on file. The official page can still be opened from Alabama's state hub. The profile does not fill that hold with a different state's report or with an FEC total.

Keep personal disclosures on their own form

A personal financial disclosure is the filer's report of income, assets, and liabilities, in the ranges the form uses. It is not the committee's Form 3. Senate public records, including those disclosures, are at the Senate Office of Public Records. House filings of that kind are at the Office of the Clerk. Ranges stay ranges. A band is not a single dollar figure.

On an OppIntell profile, an FEC filing is one source type, and a published briefing attaches a source URL and that source type to the claim. Citation validation records whether the document still exists at the URL and still contains the cited language. A claim that fails stays out of the public post. The research book keeps an FEC finance section for a filing that names the person or the committee, and a separate disclosures section for a personal financial disclosure. A number stays in the finance section only when the filing that was opened states it. The wider map of record types is opposition research sources.

Related guides

Questions researchers ask

Which FEC schedule lists contributions?

On Form 3, used by House and Senate authorized committees, Schedule A lists each receipt required to be itemized and supports a line on the Detailed Summary Page. The Form 3 instructions PDF linked from https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/forms/ names the identification fields and the itemization aggregate. Open that PDF. It is the current instructions, and a later revision replaces it.

Which schedule lists spending?

Schedule B lists each disbursement required to be itemized. The same Form 3 instructions say the committee reports the full name, mailing address, date, amount, and purpose, and that purpose means a brief statement of why the disbursement was made. Use a separate Schedule B for each category. Do not add Schedule A and Schedule B into one total.

Do state and local candidates file these schedules?

A state or local candidate may never appear in an FEC report. Their disclosure, when it exists, uses the state's form. Open the campaign finance links on that state's hub, or the FEC Combined Federal/State Disclosure and Election Directory. A state form is not Form 3, and its schedules are not Schedule A and Schedule B.

Is a personal financial disclosure the same as a campaign report?

No. A personal financial disclosure lists what the filer reported about income, assets, and liabilities. A campaign report lists the committee's receipts and disbursements. Cite the form the sentence uses. Senate filings are at the Senate Office of Public Records. House filings are at the Office of the Clerk.

Start from the public record

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