The FEC: The Failure To Enforce Commission

February 20, 2013

ACS is pleased to distribute “The FEC: The Failure to Enforce Commission,” an Issue Brief by Fred Wertheimer and Don Simon, President of and Counsel to Democracy 21, respectively. In the Issue Brief, Wertheimer and Simon assert that the Federal Election Commission is “exactly the weak and ineffective agency that members of Congress, whose campaign finance activities it oversees, intended it to be.” The authors explain how the FEC is flawed by design, has only contributed to the problem of money in politics, and is in need of a complete overhaul. Among the changes they recommend to ensure that the FEC becomes an effective enforcer of our federal campaign finance laws are (1) a single administrator as head of the agency, (2) a new decision-making structure that would “include a system of impartial administrative law judges to hear enforcement cases and make initial decisions about potential violations of the law,” and (3) multi-year funding for the agency as one way to ensure it has adequate resources free from the pressures of election cycles.

Wertheimer and Simon conclude: “The current situation demands a real campaign finance enforcement agency to enforce the campaign finance laws and protect the integrity of our elections.”

Read the full Issue Brief: The FEC: The Failure to Enforce Commission