Watchdog Groups Challenge Illegitimate Attempt by Republican FEC Commissioners to Sabotage Campaign Finance

In a letter sent today to the five FEC Commissioners, Democracy 21, joined by the Campaign Legal Center and Americans for Campaign Reform,strongly objected to changes to the agency’s Enforcement Manual that have been proposed by Republican Commissioners McGahn, Hunter and Petersen.

The proposed changes are to be considered by the FEC at a coming meeting.

According to the letter:

These proposed changes must be rejected by the Commission because they will prevent the free exchange of information between the professional staff of the agency and the Justice Department, United States Attorneys and other agencies, at the expense of  enforcing the nation’s campaign finance laws.

These changes will also prevent the Commission’s professional staff from considering information that is already public information without the voting approval of four Commissioners – forcing the professional staff to act as if they are blind to information that is on the public record and that is available to everyone outside the agency.

The proposed changes are nothing less than a gag rule for the professional staff of the agency. They would have the predictable effect of seriously undercutting not just the FEC’s ability to effectively enforce the campaign finance laws, but the ability of the rest of the federal government to do so as well.

The letter stated:

Any Commissioner who votes for these proposed changes is voting to sabotage the enforcement of the nation’s campaign finance laws by the FEC, the Justice Department, and United States Attorneys. Any Commissioner who votes for these changes will be doing a great disservice to the American people.

According to Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer:

 The current three Republican FEC Commissioners have consistently blocked the agency from enforcing the nation’s campaign finance laws, which they ideologically oppose. Now in an act of extraordinary hubris, the three Republican Commissioners are attempting to thwart the ability of other enforcement officials to enforce the laws.

The Republican FEC Commissioners have proposed a gag rule unprecedented in the 39 year history of the FEC that would prevent the FEC professional staff from even speaking about enforcement matters with the Justice Department or U.S. Attorneys offices, without prior approval of four Commissioners. This, of course, will require the vote of at least one of the Republican Commissioners.

This latest effort by the three Republican FEC Commissioners would tell the FEC’s professional staff “to hear no evil, see no evil and be silent about evil.”