Deconstructing America

These are dark times at the Federal Election Commission, which has now gone two months without enough commissioners to enforce federal campaign finance laws.

That’s because U.S. senators and President Donald Trump have failed to strike an agreement to fill any of three vacancies on the six-member commission that needs a quorum of at least four warm bodies to conduct most any high-level business.

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"The situation encourages chaos, and it encourages corruption,” said former Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.

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Since Sept. 1, the FEC has canceled four of its public meetings. That’s on top of three public meetings the agency canceled earlier this year, including two in January because of the partial federal government shutdown.

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Trump’s re-election campaign has repeatedly refused to pay public safety bills sent by the municipal governments of cities that have hosted the president’s campaign rallies. While debate rages over whether the campaign is legally obligated to pay them, federal law appears quite clear that it should at least be reporting these bills as “disputed debt” on its periodic campaign finance disclosures.

On Oct. 28, Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., sent a letter to the FEC demanding the agency open an investigation into Trump’s campaign for failing to disclose disputed debts. So long as the FEC lacks a quorum of commissioners, agency staff can begin work on such an investigation but commissioners themselves can’t take votes and finish it.

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“It’s a cheap stunt. Horrendous,” the congressman said. “Trump could pay. His campaign has lots of money. These cities should not be taken for granted. Cities are grasping for every dollar for their budgets.”

  Public Integrity

For one thing, the cities should sue.

As of May 1, the FEC was grappling with a backlog of 289 cases on its enforcement docket. Of those, several dozen contained elements that already had surpassed a five-year statute of limitations or would by May 1, 2020.

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Democratic presidential candidate Steve Bullock, the governor of Montana and an outspoken campaign finance reformer, wants access to public presidential matching funds — an increasingly obsolete reserve nevertheless flush with cash (more than $393 million as of June 30) and still available to White House hopefuls who agree to certain fundraising limits.

One problem: the FEC must vote on candidates’ requests to access these matching funds. No commissioner quorum? No vote.

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And numerous cases are fated, in part or in full, to surpass the statute of limitations — and therefore, expire, without justice being served.

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Several of the cases on which the FEC hasn’t acted involve America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC mired in the Ukraine scandal congressional Democrats are investigating as part of their Trump impeachment inquiry.

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No enforcement of campaign finance disclosure laws could mean illegal, undisclosed and even foreign money seeping into Election 2020, she said.

Perfect timing.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.