The Federal Election Commission hasn’t been able to launch investigations or issue penalties for well over a year.
A record amount of money is pouring into the midterm elections, but there’s currently no cop on the beat.
The Federal Election Commission is charged with policing campaign finance laws, but it has been unable to conduct investigations or issue penalties for well over a year.
That’s because the agency doesn’t have enough commissioners to hold a vote. President Donald Trump fired the Democratic chair last year, and three other Republicans on the panel resigned for different reasons. Currently, two commissionersremain in place.
Trump announced two nominees earlier this year, which would be enough to restore enforcement, but their approval has stalled in the Senate for months.
In a statement dated Feb. 18, 2026,Senate Rules Committee Chairman Mitch McConnell (R-KY) praised Trump’s picks and promised a “timely hearing and confirmation process.”
“A functioning FEC is essential to maintaining the integrity and transparency of our federal elections, and restoring a quorum is an important step toward that goal,” McConnell wrote.
McConnell returned to Capitol Hill last month after an extended absence due to health issues.
Asked if a confirmation hearing would be scheduled before the current Congress ends in January, a spokesperson for McConnell, David Popp, wrote in an email, “I’ll be sure to let you know if I have any scheduling announcements or guidance for you.”
Sen. Alex Padilla of California, the top Democrat on the committee, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the FEC’s latest quarterly report shows there are 307 pending cases.
Adav Noti, a former FEC lawyer who currently serves as executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, says enforcement at the agency was lacking before the vacancies.
“The voter perception that there’s something wrong with the system isn’t just a product of the FEC being sort of non-functional right at this moment. It’s a much longer-term issue of the rules going unenforced and voters going unprotected,” Noti said.
Noti said there is a five-year window for legal action after an alleged violation occurs, meaning the FEC will still have an opportunity for enforcement after new commissioners have been installed.
“At that point, the spending will have already happened, and voters will have already had a full election without the benefit of the transparency or the protection that the FEC is supposed to provide,” Noti said.
Trump accused of campaign finance violation
The Campaign Legal Center recently filed a complaint stemming from Trump’s statements that he “controls” money collected by the super PAC MAGA, Inc. It alleges that these comments amount to a “remarkable admission of a serious campaign finance violation,” pointing to rules barring federal officeholders from operating groups that aren’t subject to contribution limits.
“If somebody is giving millions of dollars, or tens of millions of dollars, or in the case of Elon Musk, hundreds of millions of dollars, there is a very high likelihood that that money could corrupt the officeholders who it’s benefiting,” Noti said.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday, nor did MAGA, Inc.
Other vacancies not expected to impact midterms
Trump also removed members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission earlier this year. The agency currently has no sitting members.
Matt Weil, vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Governance Program, said those vacancies are not expected to have a big impact on the midterm elections.
Weil, a former policy analyst at the EAC, said that agency staff can continue certifying voting systems and distributing federal election funds. However, he said the vacancies could slow down future updates to voting equipment standards.
“Certainly, for this election and even for the next election, the standards are not going to be changed, and you’re not going to be voting on different equipment than you would have been if the EAC commissioners were there,” Weil said, “But in the long term, this will slow down the next update for voting system guidelines, and it will lengthen the timeline before we’ll see new voting system equipment.”
