Two Republicans nominated for seats on the bipartisan Federal Election Commission will finally get a confirmation hearing before a Senate committee, bringing the campaign finance agency closer to reclaiming its long-dormant law enforcement and regulatory powers.
The Senate Rules Committee scheduled a hearing next Tuesday for Andrew Woodson, a lawyer at Wiley Rein, and Ashley Stow, who previously worked with former FEC Commissioner Trey Trainor, according to a Senate hearings and meetings directory, which did not include a time.
David Popp, a spokesperson for Sen. Mitch McConnell, the chair of the Senate Rules Committee, told The Washington Sun he would share additional details when he had them.
“It is well past the time for the agency to get back to business,” Shana Broussard, the Democratic chair of the FEC and one of only two remaining commissioners, told The Sun in a text message Tuesday evening. “The FEC has been without a quorum following a midterm election with record spending. I am glad to see that a hearing has been scheduled for the two nominees. I have worked with both nominees previously and look forward to working with them again.”
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Last week, 12 former Republican FEC commissioners wrote a letter first reported by The Sun urging Senate Majority Leader John Thune to quickly confirm Woodson and Stow while Republicans still held the majority, calling the prolonged delay “increasingly untenable.”
The FEC needs at least four of its six commissioner seats filled to perform high-level duties such as investigating complaints, formalizing audits, writing rules, offering formal legal guidance or even conducting public meetings.
But since May 1, 2025, the FEC has not had enough commissioners to form a quorum of four and basically sat out the 2026 election cycle, save for its role in processing and publishing campaign finance records.
Even after The Sun first reported in July 2025 that congressional Republicans had recommended Woodson and Stow, it took President Donald Trump more than eight months to nominate the two attorneys.
Trump nominated Woodson and Stow on Feb. 11 to fill two of the four vacancies on the commission. Their nominations then languished — until now.
This is the third time since 2019 that the FEC has not had enough commissioners to execute its high-level duties. Each de facto FEC shutdown has occurred while Trump was president.
Even if the Senate confirms Woodson and Stow, the commission could easily lose a quorum again if it loses just one commissioner.
Meanwhile, budget cuts and staffing shortages also threaten the FEC’s ability to clear through a backlog of enforcement matters once it has a quorum again.
In interviews with The Sun, former FEC commissioners and practitioners have questioned Trump and Congress’s desire to empower the commission to enforce and interpret campaign finance law.
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