The agency charged with policing federal campaign finance laws is losing its enforcement and policy-making powers with the resignation of a Republican commissioner.
Allen Dickerson’s departure Wednesday — combined with President Donald Trump’s February firing of long-serving Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub — leaves the Federal Election Commission with just three members and lacking a quorum. The six-member commission needs at least four members to pursue high-level business. Another commissioner, Republican Sean Cooksey, resigned in January.
Dickerson announced his resignation during an open meeting of the panel Wednesday. His four-year term expires this week. But previously some FEC commissioners, including Weintraub, had remained with the agency well after the expiration of their terms.
The FEC is the latest federal agency to lose its policymaking powers in recent months as Trump seeks more control over independent arms of the government.
The president’s firings this year, for instance, have stripped the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board of the numbers required for a quorum as he moves to remake the federal workforce and eliminate practices that encourage diversity, equity and inclusion.
The White House did not immediately respond to a CNN inquiry about Trump’s timeline for nominating replacements to the FEC, which operates with three commissioners from each party. The posts require Senate confirmation.
The FEC, which often gridlocks along partisan lines, has lost its enforcement ability several times before, including for monthslong periods during the 2020 presidential campaign.
A legal battle is ongoing over Trump’s effort to shape the agency’s decision-making. In February, he issued a sweeping executive order mandating White House review of regulations at the FEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other independent agencies, as he advances a controversial theory that presidents should have near-complete control over the executive branch.
The order also bars any employee of the executive branch from interpreting laws in a way that “contravenes” the views of the president or the attorney general.
Adav Noti, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center watchdog group, said the vacancies at the FEC come at a particularly perilous time for the agency, given Trump’s recent moves. He called on the GOP-controlled Senate to carefully vet any nominees to ensure they are committed to acting independently to enforce campaign finance laws.
“It’s terrible to have a non-functioning FEC,” Noti told CNN. “But, between having a non-functioning FEC and an FEC that the president can use to prosecute his political opponents, it’s probably better that they not have their quorum for now.”
The Democratic National Committee and the party’s congressional campaign arms have filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s order, arguing his move imperils fair elections and could allow Trump to determine the outcome of FEC complaints against Democrats.
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