Citizendia

Federal Election Commission
FEC
Federal Election Commission
Agency overview
FormedOctober 15, 1974
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
Employees339 (2006)
Agency ExecutivesDavid M. Events 533 - Byzantine General Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D Mason, Chairman
 
Ellen L. Weintraub, Vice Chairman
Website
www.fec.gov

The Federal Election Commission (or FEC) is an independent regulatory agency that was founded in 1975 by the United States Congress to regulate the campaign finance legislation in the United States. Ellen L Weintraub was appointed to be a commissioner on the Federal Elections Commission by Recess appointment on December 6, 2002 Independent agencies of the United States government are those that exist outside of the departments of the Executive branch. The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses Campaign finance refers to the means by which money is raised for election campaigns. It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 ( FECA,, et seq) is a United States federal law which increased disclosure of contributions for federal 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. "

Contents

Membership

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. The President of the United States is the Head of state and Head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in United States by The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives 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. A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral This structure was created to encourage nonpartisan decisions and, some claim, to discourage rulings which would be harmful to both major parties.

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. As of January, 2008, four of the six Commission seats were vacant, as the Senate failed to vote on full terms for recess appointees and nominees Hans von Spakovsky (Republican), Robert Lenhard and Steven Walther (Democrats) to the Commission. Hans A von Spakovsky (born March 11, 1959) is an American attorney and a former member of the Federal Election Commission (FEC This Senate failure was due to partisan fighting over the nomination of von Spakovsky, who had served on a recess appointment from January of 2006 through December of 2007. Additionally, no Republican has been nominated to replace Michael Toner, who resigned in March of 2007. Thus the current composition of the FEC includes Republican commissioner David Mason (Chairman) and Democratic commissioner Ellen Weintraub (Vice Chair). Both Commissioners Mason and Weintraub are serving past the end of their terms because successors has not yet been named, so that as of January 2008 none of the six Commission seats was filled by a duly nominated and Senate-confirmed Commissioner.

Official duties

Although the Commission's name implies broad authority over U. S. elections, in fact its role is limited almost exclusively to the administration of federal campaign finance laws. It enforces limitations and prohibitions on contributions and expenditures, investigates and prosecutes violations (investigations are typically initiated by complaints from other candidates, parties, "watchdog groups," and the public), audits a limited number of campaigns and organizations for compliance, and administers the presidential campaign fund, which provides public funds to candidates for president.

The FEC also 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 database also goes back to 1980. Private organizations are legally prohibited from using these data to solicit new individual donors (and the FEC authorizes campaigns to include a limited number of "dummy" names as a measure to prevent this), but may use this information to solicit Political Action Committees. In the US, a Political Action Committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group regardless of size organized to elect political candidates While these exhaustive campaign finance resources are available to everyone, they are rarely used by the public. The FEC also maintains an active program of public education, directed primarily to explaining the law to the candidates, campaigns and committees which it regulates.

Criticism

Critics of the FEC, including campaign finance reform supporters such as Common Cause and Democracy 21, have complained that the FEC's bipartisan structure renders the agency "toothless. Campaign finance reform is the common term for the political effort in the United States to change the involvement of money in Politics, primarily in Political Common Cause is a nonpartisan nonprofit citizens' lobby and advocacy organization Democracy 21 is a Non-profit organization in the United States that works to remove the influence of private Money from politics (see Campaign " Critics also claim that most FEC penalties for violating election law come well after the actual election in which they were committed. Election law is a discipline falling at the juncture of Constitutional law and Political science. Defenders of the Agency point out, however, that the Commissioners rarely divide evenly along partisan lines, and that the response time problem may be endemic to the system. To complete steps necessary to resolve a complaint - including time for defendants to respond to the complaint, time to investigate and engage in legal analysis, and finally, where warranted, prosecution - necessarily takes far longer than the comparatively brief period of a political campaign.

Additionally, some critics claim that the commissioners tend to act as an arm of the "regulated community" of parties, interest groups, and politicians when issuing rulings and writing regulations.

At the same time, however, other critics, such as former FEC Chairman Bradley A. Smith and Stephen M. Bradley A Smith is an American political scientist. Smith is a former Commissioner Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Federal Election Commission Hoersting, Executive Director of the Center for Competitive Politics, criticize the FEC for pursuing overly aggressive enforcement theories, and for infringing on First Amendment rights of free speech. [1]

The Federal Election Administration Act of 2007, was introduced in the US Congress in 2007 as an attempt to fix perceived problems with the FEC. This bill would replace the FEC with a "Federal Elections Administration" with only three board members. The Chairman, who would be appointed by the President to a 10-year term, would be responsible for operations of the Commission, with the remaining two Commissioners (one from each major party) reduced to consulting roles and votes on appeals. The new agency, if approved, would have expanded powers, and would also require enforcement proceedings to take place before administrative law judges appointed by the Chairman. An administrative law judge ( ALJ) in the United States is an official who presides at an administrative trial -type hearing to resolve a dispute between It was introduced in the Senate by John McCain and Russ Feingold, and in the House of Representatives by former Representative Martin Meehan and Christopher Shays. Russell Dana "Russ" Feingold (born March 2, 1953) is an American politician from the U Martin Meehan may refer to either of the below-referenced individuals Marty Meehan - former U Christopher H Shays (born October 18 1945) is an American politician has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives

Commissioners

Current

Former

References

  1. ^ Bradley A. Events 46 BC - Titus Labienus defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Smith; Stephen M. Hoersting (2002). "A Toothless Anaconda: Innovation, Impotence, and Overenforcement at the Federal Election Commission". Election Law Journal 1 (2): 145–171.  

See also

External links

Events 1295 - Scotland and France form an alliance the beginnings of the Auld Alliance, against England. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States has a federal government, with elected officials at federal (national state and local level Campaign finance in the United States is the financing of electoral campaigns at the federal, state, and local levels. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 ( FECA,, et seq) is a United States federal law which increased disclosure of contributions for federal The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 ( BCRA, McCain–Feingold Act,) is United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign C-SPAN (officially the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network) is an American Cable television network dedicated to airing non-stop coverage
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic