The Senate on Wednesday confirmed three members to the Federal Election Commission, restoring the agency’s ability to conduct official business after months without a voting quorum and bringing the panel to its full slate of six members for the first time since 2017.
The confirmations come at the conclusion of the 2020 elections, which are projected to cost $14 billion and be the most expensive. The commission, which regulates and enforces federal campaign finance laws, had a voting quorum for just 29 days in the summer. It has not been able to conduct official business for the majority of the 2019-2020 election cycle, amid mounting backlogs of complaints and advisory opinion requests.
The new commissioners are Shana M. Broussard, current FEC attorney and the first Black commissioner; Sean J. Cooksey, general counsel for GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and the youngest person to become a commissioner; and Allen Dickerson, legal director of the Institute for Free Speech, which opposes campaign finance restrictions. Broussard is a Democrat, and Cooksey and Dickerson are Republicans.
With their confirmations, the commission is again equally divided ideologically, which could resume the FEC’s practice of often deadlocking on alleged election violations. Federal law requires more than one party to be represented on the FEC.