WASHINGTON - Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis (IL-13) issued the following statement after sending a letter to Inspector General (IG) Christopher L. Skinner of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) requesting an investigation into the partisan behavior of Chair Ellen Weintraub and its negative effects on the nonpartisan agency. This letter comes after the Democrats chose to cancel the Committee's oversight hearing of the FEC on September 25th.

"I am requesting that the FEC Inspector General investigate potential violations of federal ethics regulations by the Chair Ellen L. Weintraub, such as: her use of official government time and resources for ideological, political purposes; her continued appearances in national media to discuss matters outside the purview of the FEC; and her refusal to recuse herself from any Matters Under Review involving President Trump, despite the apparent conflict of interest between the Chair's nonpartisan position at the FEC and the use of her official Twitter account to publicly disparage the President," said Ranking Member Davis.

"I believe that this pattern of behavior is unbecoming of the Federal Election Commission Chair and may have possibly broken ethics regulations. Impartial, nonpartisan leadership by the Chair of the FEC is essential for the Commission to fairly enforce our nation's campaign finance laws."

"As I've said before, I disagree with the Democrats' proposal in H.R. 1 to alter the current makeup of the FEC by reducing it to a more partisan structure of five members, especially considering the partisanship already displayed by its Chair. When we are talking about an agency whose primary mission is regulating speech within our country, it should only make decisions in a nonpartisan fashion."

"If Democrats propose that the FEC's current makeup is dysfunctional, let's investigate the effect commissioners overstaying their term has on the agency. Instead of waiting on the Senate Democrats to nominate commissioners to fill the current vacancies, perhaps we should discuss the possibility of six new commissioners and determine what the value of new members may add to the agency."

"The American people must have confidence in their elections, and those enforcing campaign laws must do so without a partisan agenda."

Read the full letter requesting the investigation here.

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