A possible Democratic sweep has some of lawmakers eyeing an idea years in the making: Put the Federal Election Commission, the nation's crippled political $ regulator, out of its prolonged misery. Then reanimate it stronger than ever. by @davelevinthal ($) ow.ly/QnVo50CabYD
"It's the most dysfunctional agency I know, and unless you think a damaged commission with party loyalists lined up in it is a desirable outcome, you want significant reform," Rep. David Price, a North Carolina Democrat, told @Politicsinsider
The FEC in 2020 hasn't had enough commissioners to enforce laws or regulate the 1000s of political committees & actors under its purview. It's "completely off the rails" to conduct elections without a fully functioning FEC, said Rep. Derek Kilmer, a Washington Democrat.
The six-member FEC is meant to be a bipartisan commission where no more than three commission seats may be occupied by any one party. This, by design, aims to ensure that neither Democrats nor Republicans dominate decision-making.
But an emboldened Democrat-led Congress would almost certainly attempt to reduce the number of FEC commissioners from 6 to 5 - similar to the makeup of the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission - thereby nixing frequent deadlocks along ideological lines.
Other proposals include giving the FEC new enforcement & administrative powers, restricting how political candidates & super PACs may coordinate, forcing political candidates to give away unused campaign & even changing the FEC's name to the "Federal Election Administration."
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