How FEC Closure Could Affect 2020 Election
In late August, Republican Commissioner Matthew Petersen resigned from the FEC, leaving the control group almost entirely closed. Without a quorum (or the required number of board members), Petersen’s resignation should absolutely worry American voters, one former commissioner said. But what is FEC? And how might this affect the upcoming 2020 elections?
What’s happening?
For context, the FEC is an independent regulatory agency responsible for enforcing federal campaign law, which includes rules on who can contribute to elections, how much they can contribute, and, for example, the public disclosure of such donations. Typically, the FEC will consist of six commissioners, each serving a six-year sentence (or longer if no replacement can be found). Commissioners are appointed by the incumbent president. (The Senate must also approve the president’s candidacy.)
Between 2017 and 2018, two different commissioners resigned. After Petersen stepped down last week (he has served as FEC Commissioner since George W. Bush appointed him in 2008), there are only three remaining board members left in the FEC, all of whom are already serving after six. -year terms. “[…] a minimum of four votes are required for any formal action by the Commission,” the FEC writes on its website . “This structure was created to encourage non-partisan decisions.”
Why is it important?
Well for several reasons. According to the New York Times , some important functions, such as voting on campaign finance violations, will be delayed until a new commissioner is appointed. Without a minimum of four members, the FEC also cannot initiate new investigations, hold meetings, or conduct audits.
“If we are talking about months, then you basically have hundreds, thousands of different political committees and political entities, in which no one really controls their activities as the FEC would do if the FEC were fully functional”, – David. Levinthal, director of the Center for Public Integrity, told NPR .
In a statement, Ellen Weintraub, the current Commissioner, said the FEC “will still be able to bring attention to campaign finance for 2020” and will continue to require political committees to report their contributions and expenditures, so the FEC will not not be in a complete shutdown, even if it’s pretty close to it.
Will filling the space solve all our problems?
Not necessarily, but it raises very important questions about how to reform the FEC. Critics of the FEC described the group as largely ineffective, and due to the stalemate in the board of directors during voting, the split was mainly along party lines. These dead ends make it difficult for the FEC to achieve its objectives as a regulator. (In 2015, former Commissioner Anne Ravel even admitted that the FEC was “worse than dysfunctional.”)
New York University’s Brennan Justice Center has proposed several reform ideas, including changing the number of commissioners and ensuring that there is at least one independent politician in place to reduce the impasse. Meanwhile, the FEC cannot achieve anything without a fourth nominator.
What happens next?
In a statement, Weintraub called on President Trump to appoint more commissioners and the Senate to immediately approve them. (In September 2017, Trump did nominate James E. Trainor III, a Republican, to the FEC, but the Senate has yet to schedule a hearing on Trainor.)
Will we see a successful and approved commissioner before 2020? This is unlikely, especially with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has long advocated more money in politics than less at the helm. Let’s see how this may or may not change in the coming months.