get_independent_expenditures

Retrieve independent expenditures (Schedule E) - money spent by PACs and Super PACs to support or oppose candidates without coordinating with campaigns. Critical for understanding outside money influence in elections. Can filter by candidate targeted, committee spending, or support/oppose indicator.

Server Fec sh-patterson/fec-mcp-server
Category Read
Risk class Low
Parameters 00 required

What get_independent_expenditures does on Fec

AI agents call get_independent_expenditures to retrieve information from Fec without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.

Why get_independent_expenditures needs a policy

This tool retrieves and queries existing campaign finance data (independent expenditures by PACs/Super PACs) without side effects. It performs read-only operations with filtering capabilities on disclosed financial information. No data is created, modified, deleted, or executed. The low severity reflects that misuse would only expose already-public FEC data, with no blast radius beyond information access.

From the tool's definition Tool description uses 'Retrieve' and 'filter' language with no mention of modification, deletion, or execution capabilities. The function queries Schedule E financial disclosure data from the OpenFEC API, which is public campaign finance information.

Questions about get_independent_expenditures

What does the get_independent_expenditures tool do? +

Retrieve independent expenditures (Schedule E) - money spent by PACs and Super PACs to support or oppose candidates without coordinating with campaigns. Critical for understanding outside money influence in elections. Can filter by candidate targeted, committee spending, or support/oppose indicator. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Fec MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.

How do I enforce a policy on get_independent_expenditures? +

Register the Fec MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for get_independent_expenditures: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval. Point your MCP client at the PolicyLayer proxy URL and the rule is enforced on every call, before it reaches Fec. Nothing to install.

What risk level is get_independent_expenditures? +

get_independent_expenditures is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.

Can I rate-limit get_independent_expenditures? +

Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the get_independent_expenditures rule in your PolicyLayer policy. For example, setting max: 10 and window: 60 limits the tool to 10 calls per minute. Rate limits are tracked per agent session and reset automatically.

How do I block get_independent_expenditures completely? +

Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for get_independent_expenditures. The AI agent will receive a policy violation error and cannot call the tool. You can also include a reason field to explain why the tool is blocked.

What MCP server provides get_independent_expenditures? +

get_independent_expenditures is provided by the Fec MCP server (sh-patterson/fec-mcp-server). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.

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