Jul 14, 2004 -- Press Release: Senate Hearing "An Important Step Toward FEC Reform"

Legal Center: Senate Hearing "An Important Step Toward FEC Reform"

Trevor Potter , the president and general counsel to the Campaign Legal Center, called today's Senate Rules Committee hearing on the Federal Election Commission "an important step forward." In his testimony before the Committee, he urged reform of the Commission, which has often failed to take action on the most controversial campaign finance issues in its jurisdiction.

The hearing, which was called by Chairman Trent Lott (R-MS), was the first Senate oversight hearing on the FEC in more than six years. Prior to and during the hearing, Chairman Lott ex pressed concern with the Commission's failure to act on important policy matters, including during the agency's recent consideration of so-called "527 groups" that are raising and spending millions of dollars in soft money to influence the coming election.

Most importantly, during the hearing, Senator Lott expressed interest in pursuing legislation to reform the FEC in the next sessi on of Congress.

Trevor Potter , a former FEC Commissioner and Chair, also criticized the structure of the Commission:

"To be clear, the FEC is full of competent, dedicate d staffers wo rking hard at their jobs—but the structure of the agency isn't up to the task of acting decisively to interpret and enforce the law. Th is is not a criticism of individual, well-meaning C ommissioners, but of the system Congress created . A six-headed , partisan Commission, with a rotating chairman, requiring a 2/3rds majority for any action, is a design for failure on important, controversial issues. Congress could not function with that design, either!"

Mr. Potter also commented on three possible suggestions that were made during the hearings for addressing the agency's structural problems.

"First, the agency could move to a system like the one used by the International Trade Commission, where tie votes result in a matter going forward, rather than being dropped. Second, we could move to a system with an odd number of Commissioners, or one with a tie-breaking chair. Third, we could have a system in which ties at the Commission would be subject to immediate, de novo review by federal courts.

"Any of these proposals would be an improvement over the current system."

Mr. Potter's written testimony pointed to the groundbreaking 2002 "No Bark, No Bite, No Point" study of the FEC, and endorsed the McCain/Feingold/Shays/Meehan proposal for a new election commission. Information about both the study and the legislation can be found on the Campaign Legal Center's website at www.campaignlegalcenter.org

COMMITTEE STATEMENTS

Click here to view the statement by Senator Trent Lott.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Administration

Click here to view the statement by Senator Christopher Dodd.
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Rules and Administration

WITNESS TESTIMONY

Click here to view Senator John McCain's testimony.

Click here to view Senator Russ Feingold testimony.

Click here to view Bradley Smith's testimony.
Chairman, Federal Election Commission

Click here to view Ellen Weintraub's testimony.
Vice Chair, Federal Election Commission

Click here to view Trevor Potter's testimony.

Click here to view Benjamin Ginsberg's testimony.

Click here to view Robert Bauer's testimony.

PRESS CONTACT:
Mark Glaze
Tel. 202.271.0982