End FEC stalement

Detroit Free Press: Although it hardly has the most teeth among government enforcement agencies, this is still the worst of times for the Federal Election Commission to be rendered powerless by the inaction of Congress. It’s an election year, for heaven’s sake. Money is already flowing into campaigns like sewage after a rainstorm, and if nobody’s minding the pipes, who knows what’s likely to rush through?

The FEC effectively went dark as a decision-making body on New Year’s Day because only two of its six members are seated and four are needed for a quorum. While the FEC staff of lawyers, investigators and auditors remain on the job, there are not enough available votes to authorize an investigation, assess a penalty for campaign law violations, or disburse matching federal campaign funds to qualified candidates. Seven such applications are pending from presidential candidates, and the Democratic and Republican parties also are expecting $1 million each for their conventions.

Political problem

The problem is, naturally, political. The FEC is supposed to have three Democratic and three Republican members, each nominated to the commission by the president. There is one vacancy. Three of the other commissioners were “recess appointments” — made without Senate approval — that expired Dec. 31. President George W. Bush nominated each of the three for full terms, but Senate Democrats blocked one and Republicans responded by blocking the other two. The net effect is agency paralysis.

The Democratic opposition is to Republican Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department civil rights lawyer who has been criticized for decisions he made there on redistricting in Texas and voter identification in Georgia. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., no friend of the FEC, retaliated against the Democratic nominees and is blocking a vote on the confirmation of all three.