The federal agency responsible for enforcing the nation’s campaign finance laws has essentially lost the ability to do its job going into the 2020 cycle.
Vice Chairman Matthew S. Petersen announced on Monday he is resigning from the Federal Election Commission, an independent, bipartisan regulatory agency, leaving the FEC with just three members—not enough for a quorum.
The FEC, which is supposed to have a six-member board, needs four members for its proceedings to be valid. Lack of a quorum prevents the FEC from holding meetings, starting audits, creating news rules and imposing fines on those who violate campaign finance laws. “Without a board they basically can’t do their job,” said Elizabeth Hempowicz, director of public policy at the Project on Government Oversight.
If we don’t know “where money is coming from, making sure that presidential candidates are funded in a way that’s consistent with the law, we’ve got potentially serious problems,” said Hempowicz. “It's an election security matter and I think that’s something that should be on the front of everybody’s mind going into 2020 given what happened in 2016.”
Petersen, who joined the FEC in 2008, did not give a reason for his departure. In his resignation letter he outlined how he “consistently opposed unnecessarily rigid regulatory rulings” and “worked to shape the post-Citizens United legal framework,” following the Supreme Court’s decision in 2010 that political spending is protected speech.
The three remaining commissioners' terms have expired, but they may remain until new members are appointed. FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat, commissioner resignation renders toothless elections
