The Commission seems to be back at it again: quarreling publicly over disclosure rules and policy applied to the Internet advertising. The Republican Commissioners are calling for a public uprising of sorts against Commissioner Ravel’s call for reconsidering those rules and policy as part of an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. They are urging public comments—they have in mind protests—attacking tighter reporting requirements. The Internet has been provided with lenient regulatory treatment, a choice for which the Commission has been generally applauded, and the Republican Commissioners want to keep things that way. Commissioner Ravel has both moved to reopen the question and indicated her view that more regulation may be in order—that significant sums spent for political advertising on the Internet should be viewed, for disclosure purposes, as no different than broadcast, cable or satellite communications.

Those who are rooting for a Commission that works better and more collaboratively across the partisan divide have reason for concern. Only a few weeks ago, the Commissioner managed to approve rulemakings to take account of recent Supreme Court decisions. The vote was not unanimous, but a 4-2 decision was progress, and at the Commission table, there was hope expressed that the agreement reached that day marked a fresh commitment among Commissioners to explore additional areas for agreement. It would be a shame if now, in the flap over Internet regulation, the Commission quickly regressed to caustic exchange and administrative stalemate.

The decision in  McCutcheon  has not been the only source of lively rhetoric in the world of campaign finance. The FEC's commissioners took to very open squabbling, putting their cases in Statements of Reason and elaborating on them in op-eds and letters placed with the New York Times. The conflict in this instance involved Commissioner Ravel on one side and all of the Republican commissioners on the other, and they swiped at each other in strong terms over the properly defined responsibility of FEC Commissioners and the role of courts.

How to establish priorities for the enforcement of the federal (or any) campaign finance laws is a difficult question. Congress has not specified them by statute and as the years go by, the Federal Election Commission has shown less rather than more agreement on what those priorities might be. As a result, sensible prioritization has sometimes gotten lost in partisan and policy conflicts. Adding to the problem is uncertainty about the enforceability of a law that is under pressure from changes in political practice and expanded constitutional limitations on regulatory action. Now the Commission is changing with the arrival of two new Commissioners, and a fresh opportunity is presented for discussion about the elements of a sensible, effective enforcement program. Ann Ravel, one of two new Commissioners, comes to the job with certain priorities in mind: disclosure and, more generally, “enforcement of significant matters.”

DOJ is taking an exceptional action in suing for large fines against an "habitual" violator of the federal lobbying disclosure laws. United States of America v. Biassi Business Services, Inc., No. 13-0853 (D.D.C., filed June 7, 2013). The delinquencies alleged in the Complaint, for late or unfiled reports, are sobering: 28 quarterly reports and 98 semi-annual reports since 2009. Even the remedial actions taken, the Complaint alleges, lagged behind the statutory requirement, indifferent to the 60 day deadlines for correcting problems once the filer is officially notified of them. The U.S. Attorney’s arrival on the scene to issue additional warnings apparently had little effect: the defendant “ignored or failed to respond to numerous letters sent by the U.S. Attorney’s Office…” Id at 11. Assuming the facts as alleged, this first enforcement action hardly qualifies as an overreaction or a trial run of an innovative enforcement theory. And yet it is a “first.” So it is an occasion for considering the relative weights assigned as a matter of federal law and policy to the two disclosure regimes of campaign finance and lobbying.