Nation’s top campaign finance watchdog to be defanged after Republican commissioner resigns this week
A dismal milestone for the rule of law is expected to be hit on Thursday, when the six-member Federal Election Commission (FEC) — the independent federal agency that acts as the nation’s top civil campaign finance watchdog — is anticipated to officially lose the quorum it needs to conduct business and enforce the laws on the books.
Obviously a federal agency being unable to do its job is never ideal, but the FEC losing its quorum will defang it at a time when the robust scrutiny of money in politics is needed more than ever. As lawmakers continue to face pressure to raise thousands of dollars a day from special interests with business before Congress and President Donald Trump continues to headline super PAC fundraisers where donors pay $1 million or more for special access, it’s no time for the nation’s top campaign finance cop to be asleep on the beat.
Without a quorum, the FEC cannot investigate campaign finance complaints, conduct audits, levy fines against rule-breakers, issue new rules or advisory opinions, initiate new litigation, or even hold meetings. And while existing laws and regulations remain in effect while the FEC lacks a quorum, the commission will almost certainly face a backlog of work from whatever piles up while it is without a quorum. It already has more than 200 outstanding cases on its enforcement docket.
There’s a history…
The FEC has long been criticized as dysfunctional. And, to make matters worse, this will not be the first time that the FEC has lost a quorum in its 50-year history. Indeed, this will mark the fourth time in the FEC’s history that it will have lost a quorum, and the third loss of a quorum under a Trump presidency.
The first time the FEC lost its quorum was for six months in 2008, under President George W. Bush. This occurred at a time when there was political pressure to restore the FEC’s quorum because then-Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) needed a functional FEC to sign off on public financing for his campaign. (McCain was the last major party presidential nominee to participate in the presidential public financing system created in the wake of the Watergate scandal.)
The second and third instances happened during Trump’s first term when the FEC was without a quorum for 14 months between September 1, 2019, and December 9, 2020, with its quorum briefly restored for one month between June 5 and July 4.
What’s next? We wait and see.
It’s unclear how long the new loss of a quorum will last, or how many, if any, new FEC commissioners Trump will nominate anytime soon. Theoretically, Trump could nominate up to five new commissioners, as only Democratic FEC Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum’s term is unexpired.
By law, FEC commissioners are supposed to serve for no more than a single, six-year term, but in practice, FEC commissioners on expired terms continue to retain all their power, and presidents of both parties in recent years have not prioritized adding new blood to the commission.
Since Trump won the 2024 presidential election, two of the FEC’s three Republican commissioners have made for the exit, with Republican Sean Cooksey resigning in January and Republican Allan Dickerson expected to resign on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in February, Trump unilaterally ousted one of the three other commissioners serving on an expired term — Democrat Ellen Weintraub — a move that has been criticized as illegal but which has been labeled a vacancy on the FEC’s website. This dismissal doesn’t bode well for the type of FEC commissioners Trump may choose to nominate.
What the FEC needs most is a full array of commissioners who are firmly committed to enforce our nation’s campaign finance laws — individuals who put country over party and who understand the importance of the rule of law.
Losing the FEC’s quorum is a breach of trust with the American people who don’t want the nation’s top campaign finance regulator to be missing in action. Polls show that most Americans believe the influence of money in politics is a threat to our democracy. A defanged and dysfunctional FEC that doesn’t even have a quorum fails to give the American people the protection from corruption that they deserve.
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