Washington, D.C. – Today, Republican and Democratic former chairs of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Trevor Potter and Ann Ravel, submitted a letter of support for the FEC reform provisions in the For the People Act (H.R.1/S.1) to congressional leaders. The failures of the FEC to protect the integrity of the federal campaign process by providing transparency and fairly enforcing campaign finance law, and the reforms needed to strengthen the agency are outlined in the letter from the former chairs, one appointed by former President George H. W. Bush and one appointed by former President Barack Obama.   

The FEC is responsible for enforcing the laws that govern the U.S. campaign finance system for campaigns for president and Congress. It is the only government agency whose sole responsibility is overseeing the integrity of our political campaigns. Over the past decade, the FEC has routinely failed to enforce the law even when presented with clear violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act. The agency routinely deadlocks and fails to reach the required four votes necessary to open an investigation and enforce violations or update campaign finance regulations. At the same time, there has been an increase in candidates, parties and independent organizations that push the boundaries of the Federal Election Campaign Act, violating the law, and operating under the safe assumption that any punishment is unlikely to be enforced by the FEC.  

“For the first three decades of its existence, the Commission performed its functions at least reasonably well,” said Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center and Republican former chair of the FEC, “But since then, the FEC has grown deeply dysfunctional, and our democracy has suffered as a result. To fix the FEC, the For the People Act draws from the bipartisan Restoring Integrity to America’s Elections Act, which was introduced with Republican and Democratic co-sponsors in the last three sessions of Congress.” 

Under current law, the FEC is led by six Commissioners nominated by the president, no more than three of whom can be from the same political party. The political custom is that nominees are recommended by party leaders in Congress. It takes a vote of four of those Commissioners to write new rules or take any substantive action. The current structure of the FEC means that any three Commissioners can paralyze the agency.   

“As political spending increases and the online political advertising landscape becomes more complicated and in need of regulation, the very agency we need to ensure the health of our democracy is ineffectual,” said Ann. M. Ravel, Digital Deception Project Director at MapLight and Democratic former Chair of the FEC. “It’s time for Congress to help restore public trust in government and our elections by enacting meaningful changes to the FEC and passing the For the People Act.”

The For the People Act would restructure the FEC in three ways. It would change the number of Commissioners from six to five, with the requirement that no more than two Commissioners be members of the same political party; create a nonpartisan advisory panel to identify and recommend qualified nominees; and strengthen the enforcement process to prevent Commissioners from shutting down investigations at an early stage.

The FEC’s inaction has resulted in an explosion in secret spending and our politics increasingly rigged in favor of wealthy special interests. To reduce political corruption and protect the voices of voters in our democracy, we need a stronger FEC that will enforce campaign finance law. The For the People Act would fix the FEC.  

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign Legal Center Action (CLCA) and Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that the NRA Victory Fund violated the Federal Election Campaign Act by failing to properly disclose legally required information for individual contributors who together gave over $500,000. The complaint shines a light on the latest example in a repeated pattern of the National Rifle Association (NRA) subverting campaign finance laws.  

During the 2020 election cycle, the NRA Victory Fund received 46 itemized contributions from 42 individual contributors, who together gave $510,500 between July and December. Employer and occupation information was disclosed for just two out of the 42 contributors, and several months after first filing incomplete reports with the FEC, the super political action committee (PAC) has yet to amend any FEC reports to disclose any donor’s occupation or employer.

“Federal law requires that a super PAC ask donors for occupation and employer information and follow up if that information is not provided. The NRA super PAC’s failure to disclose occupation and employer information for 95% of its individual donors suggests a systematic effort to evade federal disclosure requirements by not collecting the required information, or by not reporting it, or both.” said Brendan Fischer, Campaign Legal Center Action director of federal reform. “It is highly unlikely that 95% of the NRA Victory Fund contributors ignored the committee’s request for occupation and employer information at the time they made their donation and additionally ignored the super PAC’s follow-up requests.”

 “The NRA Victory Fund is desperate to hide how its operations are funded from the American people,” said David Pucino, Giffords Law Center Senior Staff Attorney. “This isn’t just sloppy accounting. It’s part of a larger pattern of self-dealing, corruption and blatant disregard for the rules at the heart of the modern NRA. It’s time for them to provide honest answers on their donors.”

Political committees, regardless of their mission, must identify all individuals who contribute over $200 in a calendar year and that must disclose their donors’ occupations and employers. Real transparency about who is spending money on elections needs to be enforced in order to reduce political corruption. The FEC is the only government agency whose sole responsibility is overseeing the integrity of our political campaigns, and it must investigate and hold NRA Victory Fund accountable for its blatant disregard for campaign finance laws.

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For over 25 years, the legal experts at Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence have been fighting for a safer America. Led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Giffords Law Center researches, drafts, and defends the laws, policies, and programs proven to save lives from gun violence.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed suit directly against Iowa Values, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the reelection of Sen. Joni Ernst, for failing to register as a political action committee (PAC) as required by federal law. This rare step was taken after the Federal Election Commission (FEC) failed to act when it was made aware that Iowa Values broke federal law by not reporting who their contributors are or where that money went and deprived voters of the right to know who funded its spending to influence a Senate election. The FEC’s failure to act triggered a little-used provision in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), which allows direct suits by nonagency actors like CLC against a violator like Iowa Values, but only when the FEC fails to enforce the law.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare Iowa Values a political committee and order it to provide CLC and the FEC with information it illegally concealed, including the sources of its funding and the recipients of its spending in support of Sen. Ernst. The suit also asks the court to require Iowa Values to continue filing reports disclosing its receipts and disbursements, including the more than $156,000 Iowa Values spent on digital ads supporting the senator and/or opposing her opponent in the months before the 2020 election. Finally, it asks the court to assess an appropriate civil penalty against Iowa Values, to be paid to the federal government.

“Federal campaign finance laws require an organization like Iowa Values, whose ‘major purpose’ is campaign activity, to register with the FEC as a political committee and file regular reports disclosing its contributions, expenditures, and debts,” said Erin Chlopak, director of campaign finance strategy at CLC. “In failing to do so, they violated federal law and harmed CLC and the electorate at large by concealing critical information about their sources of funding and the recipients of its spending in support of the senator.”

CLC filed an administrative complaint with the FEC about these violations in December of 2019. After waiting more than 190 days for the FEC to act on the matter, CLC sued the FEC in federal court over its delay. On Oct. 14, 2020, the court issued an order finding that the FEC’s failure to act on CLC’s complaint was, “contrary to law” and ordering the Commission to conform by acting on CLC’s complaint within 90 days. The FEC still failed to act and on Feb. 11, 2021, the court issued an order declaring that the FEC had failed to enforce the law and that CLC had a right to sue Iowa Values directly over the violations in federal court.

“Transparency around who is spending money to support or oppose federal candidates is a cornerstone of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and critical to our democracy,” said Chlopak, “Under FECA, organizations that exist primarily to engage in political activity including making expenditures to support their preferred candidates must register as a PAC with the FEC and disclose their donors, along with other information about their financial activities.”

Iowa Values has deprived and continues to deprive the public of critical information about who is seeking to influence elections by failing to comply with federal PAC registration and reporting requirements. Its unlawful concealment of this information undermines voters’ trust in our democratic process.