• Home
  • Independent Voter News
  • Quizzes
  • Election Dissection
  • Sections
  • Events
  • Directory
  • About Us
  • Glossary
  • Opinion
  • Campaign Finance
  • Redistricting
  • Civic Ed
  • Voting
  • Fact Check
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Campaign Finance>
  3. campaign finance>

Shutdown Stops the Regulation of Campaign Money

David Hawkings
January 17, 2019

Here's one way the partial government shutdown is doing particular harm to the work of good governance: The already minimal regulation of money in politics has been suspended. All but 30 of the Federal Election Commission's 300 employees have been furloughed since the funding impasse began 27 days ago and the year's first meeting of the commissioners had to be scrapped.

"The lapse in government funding means that enforcement of campaign finance laws that hold politicians and political committees accountable has stopped," all nine Democrats on the Senate Rules and Administration Committee wrote in a letter to the agency's chairwoman, Ellen Weintraub. "The lack of law enforcement and transparency brought on by the government shutdown has severe implications for the health and security of our democracy."


The senators pressed for reassurances the shutdown would not prevent the FEC from getting its systems for enforcing campaign finance violations and disclosing contributions quickly up to speed when the impasse ends. And they asked pointedly what lessons the agency had learned from the last extended shutdown, five years ago.

"During the 2013 government shutdown, Chinese hackers managed to break into the FEC's computer network because not a single employee was present for the prevention of such a threat," they wrote, a reminder of what the Center for Public Integrity described at the time as likely "the worst act of sabotage" since the agency was created soon after Watergate. "The FEC has been maintaining a 'skeleton staff' of employees, presumably leaving the commission in a better position than in the past. However, it remains unclear the precise extent to which the present shutdown leaves the FEC prone to similar cybersecurity breaches."

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Related Articles Around the Web
  • FEC chairwoman: government shutdown is 'incredibly wasteful and ... ›
  • As 2020 candidates emerge, the shutdown has shuttered agency ... ›
  • Not 'essential': Shutdown would hit FEC hard | Center for Public ... ›
  • As Primaries Begin, the FEC Will Shut Down ›
campaign finance
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Caught in a draft

Lawrence Goldstone

Congress shows signs of bipartisanship with retirement benefits bill

Mario H. Lopez

Fair representation: More Black people needed in STEM today

Jennifer Stimpson

First instincts, second thoughts

Debilyn Molineaux

It’s time to build a global pro-democracy movement

Yordanos Eyoel
Hahrie Han

A grade for West Virginia's map, just in time for the primary

Howard Gorrell
latest News

Supreme Court continues to chip away at campaign finance laws

David Meyers
11h

Podcast: Depolarizing America

Our Staff
16h

Inflation will hit health of low-income Americans hardest

Robert Pearl
18h

Voters head to the polls in five states, with GOP nominating battles dominating headlines

David Meyers
16 May

The state of voting: May 16, 2022

Our Staff
16 May

Video: 'Bridging Across Generations' National Week of Conversation event

Our Staff
16 May
Videos

Video: Helping loved ones divided by politics

Our Staff

Video: What happened in Virginia?

Our Staff

Video: Infrastructure past, present, and future

Our Staff

Video: Beyond the headlines SCOTUS 2021 - 2022

Our Staff

Video: Should we even have a debt limit

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirstFriday Yap Politics

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Did economists move the Democrats to the right?

Our Staff
02 May

Podcast: The future of depolarization

Our Staff
11 February

Podcast: Sore losers are bad for democracy

Our Staff
20 January

Deconstructed Podcast from IVN

Our Staff
08 November 2021
Recommended
Sen. Ted Cruz and Judge Amy Coney Barrett

Supreme Court continues to chip away at campaign finance laws

Podcast: Depolarizing America

Podcast: Depolarizing America

Leadership
medical expenses

Inflation will hit health of low-income Americans hardest

Leveraging big ideas
Doug Mastriano

Voters head to the polls in five states, with GOP nominating battles dominating headlines

Voting
State of voting - election law changes

The state of voting: May 16, 2022

Voting
Video: 'Bridging Across Generations' National Week of Conversation event

Video: 'Bridging Across Generations' National Week of Conversation event

Leadership