Bipartisan group of campaign finance lawyers urge appointment of six new FEC commissioners

Today is the 128th day since the Federal Election Commission (FEC) lots its quorum, stopping it from crafting new rules or fining those who break the law, as Issue One’s “FEC M.I.A” project highlights.

It’s also when a group of campaign finance lawyers who represent Republicans and Democrats sent a letter to President Donald Trump and congressional leaders, calling on them to “work together to immediately identify, nominate, and confirm a full slate of qualified individuals to serve as Commissioners of the FEC.”

“It is critical to maintain public confidence in our national election systems,” the letter states. “We are united in our commitment to the rule of law and the need for the agency tasked with regulating federal campaign finance laws to fully function and carry out the mission assigned to it by Congress.” (Read the full letter here.)

Issue One has long called on these same leaders to fix the FEC by nominating six new commissioners who are committed to enforcing the law. 

“The FEC’s ability to monitor the billions of dollars sloshing around this election cycle is currently severely constrained, and its ability to punish those who break the law is severely curtailed until it regains a quorum,” said Issue One Research Director Michael Beckel.

The FEC currently has more than 300 cases on its enforcement docket that cannot be resolved until the FEC regains a quorum, and the statute of limitations may expire for about 70 of these cases before the FEC regains a quorum, according to Bloomberg Government. 

In April 2019, Issue One released “Busted & Broke: Why the Federal Election Commission doesn’t work” to highlight systemic issues within the agency — and their consequences. You can read the report here.

Learn more about what can be done to fix the FEC at FECMIA.com, a project of Issue One.