The Federal Election Commission is already in a state of wretched dysfunction, but it will only get worse if Republican members succeed in crippling the agency further when the commission meets on Thursday. The three Republicans on the commission appear ready to take advantage of a temporary vacancy on the three-member Democratic side to push through 3-to-2 votes for a wholesale retreat from existing regulations.
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Under their proposals, agency workers would no longer be allowed to routinely forward information about potential criminal violations by campaigners to the Justice Department, and the commission's staff investigators would be severely hobbled in conducting preliminary inquiries. This would provide further aid and comfort to politicians and operatives who run roughshod over campaign laws.
The proposed changes amount to naked subversion from within. The F.E.C.'s own general counsel, Anthony Herman, felt compelled to warn last month against ending regular information sharing with Justice Department officials, a procedure he stressed has "greatly benefited" enforcement of the law and is standard procedure for all regulatory agencies. The proposals are being pushed by Donald McGahn, the Republican vice chairman of the commission who has engineered repeated 3-to-3 standoff votes to stymie approval of staff recommendations for penalties against campaigners found in violation of the law.
Mr. McGahn, a former ethics adviser to Tom Delay, the former House majority leader who left office under an ethical cloud, is a fierce proponent of weakening F.E.C. enforcement powers. He will soon be leaving his position, but not before attempting a final blow to its effectiveness. President Obama has proposed two new commission members to put it back to six members, which means it would take a 4-to-2 vote to undo the damage proposed by Mr. McGahn. The F.E.C.'s responsibilities should have been shifted long ago to a new body of politically independent regulators, but this has been a nonstarter in a Washington environment of tooth-and-claw partisanship epitomized by Mr. McGahn.
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