The FEC’s Investigation Backlog is Growing — With No End in Sight

The chair of the Federal Election Commission confirmed a massive backlog of “pending enforcement matters” stemming from the de facto shutdown that has gripped the agency for nearly a year.

“As of December 2025, there were 190 pending enforcement matters,” Chairwoman Shana Broussard wrote in a social media post Monday. “Now, there are 195.”

The FEC has lacked the number of commissioners required for a quorum since May 1, 2025, leaving it unable to do much beyond publishing candidates’ financial disclosure reports and other basic tasks.

Audits, fines, rules and other major FEC enforcement actions all require at least four commissioners to vote, and just two commissioners are currently seated as the 2026 midterm election primaries have already begun.

Some of the investigations currently stalled at the agency began in 2022 and 2023, according to a status of enforcement report shared with NOTUS by the FEC. If the agency remains shut down for long enough, it runs the risk of jeopardizing these long-term investigations because of the FEC’s 5-year statute of limitations for such matters.

The shutdown has only worsened since Trey Trainor, the sole remaining Republican commissioner, departed in October to run for Congress in Texas. Trainor placed a distant third in the GOP primary for Texas’ 21st District earlier this month.

Then-Federal Election Commission Commissioner Trey Trainor testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Capitol Hill on June 13, 2024, in Washington. Jose Luis Magana/AP

After months of waiting, President Donald Trump nominated two Republicans — Ashley Stow and Andrew Woodson — to the commission in February. The Senate’s confirmation of both nominees would empower the agency to resume its enforcement actions, but senators have yet to make their nominations a priority.

Sometimes, FEC nominees wait months — or longer — to get confirmed. It took nearly three years for Trainor’s nomination to be approved by the Senate during Trump’s first term.

The president told Republican lawmakers on Monday that senators should, above everything else, be focused on the SAVE America Act, his long-shot voter ID bill — even if the effort grinds all other Senate activity to a halt for the next several months.

“I’m for if it takes you six months, I’m for not approving anything,” Trump said. “I don’t think we should approve anything until this is approved.”

The nominations of Stow and Woodson, however, only require Senate approval. If granted, both will become commissioners, restoring an FEC quorum.