As Threat of Foreign Interference Grows, Bennet, Senate Democrats Introduce Legislation to End FEC Deadlock and Strengthen Campaign Finance Violations Enforcement

Statement

Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet this week joined U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) in introducing legislation to reform the Federal Election Commission (FEC) by breaking the deadlock of its leadership structure and restoring its role as an effective enforcer of campaign finance regulations.

The legislation comes as election security experts continue to sound the alarm about the inability of the FEC to properly enforce campaign finance laws and protect our elections from foreign interference.

"The integrity of our democracy depends on a functional FEC that can vigorously enforce violations of our campaign finance laws. Today's FEC, however, is broken by design. The status quo may work well for special interests and ideologues who would flood our elections with money, but it is terrible for the American people and our democracy," said Bennet. "By ending the partisan gridlock at the FEC, this bill is a small but vital step toward limiting the toxic influence of wealthy special interests in our democracy and promoting more transparent and accountable elections."

"A decisive FEC that can judiciously enforce campaign finance violations is crucial to maintaining the legitimacy of our elections and democracy," said Udall. "In 2018 we now know that there were efforts to secretly funnel foreign money to candidates, deliberately violating our campaign finance laws to interfere in the outcome of those elections. This is illegal, and there is little to stop it from continuing in 2020. Right now, our FEC is toothless -- and we don't have an effective cop on the beat to protect our democracy. Without FEC enforcement, the integrity of our elections is vulnerable to the types of foreign interference that the founders warned about."

"Free and fair elections are a central principle of our democracy. And yet, secret money from special interests continues to corrupt our elections with no end in sight. As we work to fix this very broken system, at the very least we need a viable campaign watchdog to ensure that candidates and campaigns play by the existing rules. This legislation is a small but important step to put a real referee on the field. It will break the current deadlock and eliminate the partisan divide at the FEC. Together with Senator Udall, I will continue working to overhaul our campaign finance system and root out special interest spending in our elections," said Van Hollen.

The Restoring Integrity to America's Elections Act would institute several reforms to strengthen the FEC's ability to enforce campaign finance laws. The measure was also included in the For the People Act, a sweeping package of comprehensive reforms to end special interest corruption in politics and put power back in the hands of the American people, which Bennet, Udall, and Van Hollen introduced in March.

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