Federal Election Commission

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency created in 1975 by Congress to administer and enforce campaign finance legislation in the United States. It was created in a provision of the 1974 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act. It describes its duties as "to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections."

Related Topics:
Congress - Federal Election Campaign Act

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Commission is made up of six members, who are appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate. Each member serves a six-year term, and two seats are subject to appointment every two years. By law, no more than three Commissioners can be members of the same political party, and at least four votes are required for any official Commission action. This structure was created to encourage nonpartisan decisions. The Chairmanship of the Commission rotates among the members each year, with no member serving as Chairman more than once during his or her term.

Related Topics:
President of the United States - United States Senate - Political party

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Critics of the FEC, such as major campaign finance reform supporters like Common Cause and Democracy 21, have criticized this feature of the FEC, claiming that it renders the agency toothless. Though the agency disputes this characterization, critics reply that most FEC penalties for violating election law come well after the actual election in which they were committed.

Related Topics:
Campaign finance reform - Common Cause - Democracy 21

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As part of its official duties, the FEC publishes reports filed by Senate, House of Representatives and Presidential campaigns that list how much each campaign has raised and spent, and a list of all donors over $200, along with each donor's home address, employer and job title. This list is fully searchable, and is mirrored at other websites such as fecinfo.com. This database also goes back to 1980, making it a useful database of past employment histories and home addresses of any campaign donors. Campaigns are legally prohibited from using these data to solicit new individual donor (and sometimes there are false names inserted as a measure to prevent this), however they may use this information to solict Political Action Committees.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~