Agency History & Mission

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. It was created in a provision of the 1975 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."

Budget / Potential Savings

According to the Federal Election Commission's 2010 Budget Report, this agency is wasting $64,000,000 a yer in federal taxpayer money.

Why Eliminate? (Performance & 5 Whys)

If you look at this agency's history, you will clearly see that the FEC's commissioners tend to act as an arm of the "regulated community" of parties, interest groups, and politicians when issuing rulings and writing regulations. , The Executive Director of the Center for Competitive Politics, and Even former FEC Chairman Bradley A. Smith criticize the FEC for pursuing overly aggressive enforcement theories, and for infringing on First Amendment rights of free speech.

The bottom line is most FEC penalties for violating election law come well after the actual election in which they were committed. 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. This process alone has rendered a pointless existence for this bureaucracy.

Post-Elimination Impact Analysis

• PROS:
  • Elimination of this Agency would save the Taxpayers almost 70 million dollars a year, wliminated unessary beuracracy and diminish one more tool used by un-American special interestes groups.
    
    
• CONS:
  • Since this agency doesn't produce any services of productive value to the American people, the elimination of the FEC would have no effectual negative repercussions.