The EAC, The Government’s Weekend At Bernie’s

Today the Senate will hold confirmation hearings for two commissioners to the Election Assistance Commission(EAC).  There are many problems with this.  First, the two potential commissioners are both Democrats with no similar Republicans.   The Federal Election Commission by contrast only approves paired, Democrat and Republican, nominees.  Second, the agency has served the purpose for which it was created and was supposed to sunset in 2005.  Third, read below for the House Administration Committee view:

“For the past two years, the EAC has limped along without purpose or benefit, costing taxpayers over 11 million each year.  It’s a zombie agency that epitomizes bureaucracy and government waste, which is why this Committee and the House have voted multiple times to shut it down – but not the Senate. To the contrary, Wednesday, the Democratic-controlled Senate is holding a confirmation hearing to place commissioners there for the first time in two years.

“The EAC is dead, and having two commissioners carrying it between them like a scene from Weekend At Bernie's doesn't make it any more alive, or any more useful. Unfortunately, since the Senate changed its rules, it could approve these nominations on a purely partisan basis and continue to force taxpayers to subsidize government waste."

To be clear with only two Democrats the agency cannot do much besides continue to waste taxpayers’ money and create more partisan elections. This is another fallout of the” nuclear option” passed by Senate Democrats to destroy hundreds of years of tradition and minority rights in the Senate.  Now bipartisan agencies that have sunseted will become partisan agencies, even on what should be the most non-partisan of activities, elections.