Federal Election Commission

Federal Election Commission

Agency overview
Formed	October 15, 1974; 50 years ago (1974-10-15)
Jurisdiction	Federal government of the United States
Status	Independent regulatory agency
Headquarters	1050 First St NE Washington, D.C., U.S.
Employees	509 (2018)[needs update]
Annual budget	$74.5 million USD (FY 2022)[1]
Agency executives	Chair: Vacant [2] James E. Trainor III, Vice Chair[3]
Key document	Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974 (Pub. L. 93–443 88 Stat. 1263)
Website	www.fec.gov

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent agency of the United States government that enforces U.S. campaign finance laws and oversees U.S. federal elections. Created in 1974 through amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act,^[4] the commission describes its duties as "to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections." It is led by six commissioners who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

The commission was unable to function from late August 2019 to December 2020, with an exception for the period of May 2020 to July 2020, due to lack of a quorum.^[5][6] In the absence of a quorum, the commission could not vote on complaints or give guidance through advisory opinions. As of May 19, 2020, there were 350 outstanding matters on the agency's enforcement docket and 227 items waiting for action.^[7] In December 2020, three commissioners were appointed to restore a quorum; however, deadlocks arising from the equal number of members from the Republican and Democratic parties with the absence of a tie-breaking vote has resulted in some controversial investigations not being pursued.