[EL] HuffPost: FEC enforcement "gag" order

[David Keating]

As far as I know and from a quick search of the FEC regulations for the word quorum, there is no quorum requirement for a meeting.  In my SpeechNow.org AOR, the commission met when there were only two members and they voted on the AO drafts.  Needless to say, none of the drafts got 4 votes.

David
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From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Rick Hasen
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 4:36 PM
To: Craig Holman
Cc: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] HuffPost: FEC enforcement "gag" order

I found your suggestion that the Democratic Commissioners boycott tomorrow's meeting to be especially intriguing:

One Democratic commissioner left in February, leaving three Republicans and two Democrats on the Commission. McGahn is hoping to take advantage of the partisan imbalance by proposing a "gag" order in new enforcement guidelines<http://www.fec.gov/agenda/2013/mtgdoc_13-21-a.pdf>, to be approved by a 3-2 majority, that would: (i) prevent FEC staff from viewing public resources in conducting their investigations, such as candidate and government Web pages, news reports, business databases and social media sites; and (ii) prohibit FEC staff from sharing information with the Department of Justice (DOJ), which handles criminal investigations of campaign finance scandals.

If the ability of FEC staff even to conduct an investigation can be hamstrung from the onset, then the Commission need not face many more embarrassing obstructionist votes. Just as importantly for those seeking to block enforcement of the campaign finance laws, the DOJ will also be hobbled in its criminal investigations.

Prior to announcement of McGahn's proposal, FEC General Counsel Anthony Herman unexpectedly resigned from the agency last month. After the announcement, Herman felt compelled to warn the FEC and the public of the pending danger to campaign finance enforcement and submitted public testimony to the Commission.

If the Republican commissioners continue to vote as a bloc on this proposal, they will effectively neuter the enforcement ability of FEC staff and hinder Justice investigations of egregious violations.

Though it is a big ask of the remaining two Democratic commissioners, they could take a page from McGahn's playbook and not show up at the next FEC meeting, thereby denying quorum and any agency decision on the gag order.

On 7/23/13 1:25 PM, Craig Holman wrote:
Colleagues:


On Thursday, July 25, the Federal Election Commission will vote on a proposal by departing Commissioner Don McGahn that would hamper the ability of the FEC staff to conduct investigations of violations of campaign finance law. As is widely known, the agency has been beleaguered by Commission deadlocked votes since 2008, preventing many an enforcement action. Among the proposals: unless the Commission approves ahead of time - (1) Prohibit FEC staff from looking at certain public resources in the conduct of investigations, such as candidate web pages; and (2) Prohibit FEC staff from sharing information with the Department of Justice, which handles criminal complaints of egregious violations of the campaign finance law. Lisa Gilbert and I have published an op-ed about this maneuver in today's Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-holman/a-parting-shot-to-neuter_b_3641120.html

Craig Holman, Ph.D.
Government Affairs Lobbyist
Public Citizen
215 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
T-(202) 454-5182
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Holman at aol.com<mailto:Holman at aol.com>




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