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The statute increases penalties for certain violations, and also creates a framework for more active criminal enforcement of the law. Criminal sentencing standards for campaign finance violations have been established, and the statute of limitations for criminal liability has been extended to 5 years. The FEC and the Department of Justice have begun developing a new protocol or agreement governing their shared responsibility for enforcement of the law.

New Year's Eve

   Brad Smith commends the outgoing FEC Commissioners, whose work will go sadly unrecognized. Of course, very little is known about the agency, much less appreciated.  We are told oh-so-often that we must have stringent controls on campaign finance in the interest of the Republic, for its vital defense.  Those controls, now that we have them, defy casual understanding and so are largely ignored, and the agency that administers and produces a fair share of them is not closely followed or well understood. If anyone hears of the FEC, it is usually by way of a hardshly critical word, uttered by organizations and editorial boards sworn for their own purposes to prove a point about the inadequacy of the law and it enforcement. 

Holiday Tip

   Here is a holiday tip, brought now to the regulated community by  the Federal Election Commission.  It reads, in full, as follows, under the section of the agency website entitled Tips for Treasurers:

Phones are Still Being Answered at the FEC. As you may know, the Senate has failed to confirm the appointments of four commissioners whose nominations were pending. As a result, the appointments of Commissioners Lenhard, Von Spakovsky and Walther will expire with the end of this session of Congress (December 31). Nevertheless, please note that the federal campaign finance law and FEC regulations remain in effect, and the Commission will remain open and functioning next year. Our conference program will continue as scheduled, and as always, you may still contact the FEC at 1-800/424-9530 or at info@fec.gov for help with your questions about complying with current federal campaign finance laws.

   This much is certainly true: “the federal campaign finance and FEC regulations remain in effect…”  More disputable is the statement that “the Commission will remain open and functioning next year.” 

 

A Season of Reform Priorities

    Postings, after this one, will resume on Wednesday, the 26th. 

   In the holiday spirit, it is not too soon to consider where stinging critiques of corrupt government might land if the Federal Election Commission, about to close, is no longer an available target. The reform community, indifferent to the FEC’s fate, has taken its ire to the House, and there it is standing its ground against...social events honoring Congressional delegations at the Presidential nominating conventions.

No Barking in the Night about the FEC

       The Federal Election Commission, a six member body (now under five in number), may pass shortly, and for all practical purposes, out of existence, it now appearing that the Senate cannot agree on the pending nominations.  But another six member body may soon be born,  to enforce not the campaign finance laws but the House ethics code.  A task force established by the Speaker has now produced its recommendations, and this is the surprise of the season: the reform community has much to say about the ethics process and is virtually silent on the troubles of the FEC.

"Clean and Fair"

      Few may have noticed, but the New York Times editorial board believes that it is the mission of the FEC to keep “electoral politics clean and fair”. This is way beyond what any government agency can be expected to accomplish.  It exceeds, surely, what the Congress, in agreement with the President, can demand of any regulatory agency as either a practical or constitutional matter  Of all the arguments for keeping the FEC in business, by resolution of the deadlock over nominations, this is the least persuasive simply because the agency will not successfully keep, nor has it been asked to keep, electoral politics “clean and fair.”  The Times is left to dream, adding this pronouncement to the catalogue of silly statements made in its editorials over the years about the campaign finance laws.

Also...

Christmas Past, Present and Future at the Federal Election Commission  12/17/07

"Needing"The FEC--And Why....  12/7/07

The FEC On its Sick (Death?) Bed  12/4/07

The Daily Kos, the Daily Paper, the Nightly News, the U.S. Government  7/27/07

More on Family Matters  7/25/07

Election-Year Interventions and DOJ’s Unwritten Exceptions  5/10/07

The Appetite for “Independent” Ethics Enforcement: and the Problem with Satisfying It  4/23/07

The Claim of Fraud as Electoral Strategy  3/14/07

The FEC, in the Limelight  2/13/07

L’Affaire Shelmerdine and the Logic of Regulatory Systems  12/29/06