A Federal Election Commission press release explains three new procedures the agency approved on Thursday.

The initiatives are designed to significantly improve the efficiency and transparency of the Commission’s reports analysis and audit processes. Through these initiatives, the Commission will have increased direct oversight of the FEC’s reports review and audit processes. They create a new procedure for staff, as well as for persons and entities that file disclosure reports with the Commission, to seek legal guidance directly from the Commission at an early stage of the reports review and audit processes. They also provide for a procedure by which the Commission will receive monthly status reports on all pending internally-generated requests for formal legal guidance and formalized these procedures to ensure further transparency. The Commission also made completely transparent its process for reviewing staff draft audit reports and adopted a procedure whereby all important documents related to an audit proceeding will be timely placed on the public record and made available on the Commission’s website.