is it just fines the fec can issue?st: the penalties can be severe, although, often they are not. one of the criticisms of the fec is that so frequently its enforcement procedures take so long that by the time they get around to doing anything, the campaign is long over. in fact, you could violate campaign finance laws willy- nilly and then become a senator, and then simply have to pay a minor fine in the end. you could use your campaign finance to pay your fine. host: there are examples of current members paying fines for campaigns they ran long ago. host: -- guest: i cannot think of any, but again, the fines are not serious enough to be a serious deterrent. host: you are asking the president to fix the fec. is there will in congress to look at the fec and go through some of these issues? guest: there is really no will in congress did the republicans, led by mitch mcconnell, r firmly against any kind of campaign finance regulation. they will say that quite publicly. the democrats have talked about being in favor of cam

it is the fec's job to enforce the law. one of the problems with the commission, it's made of three democrats and three republicans and yet you need four votes in order to accomplish anything. host: we are with melanie sloan with citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. we're going to do the phone lines standard this time. host: melanie sloan, you talked about that some of the commissioners of the fec terms are expired. how are they still able to serve? guest: they are allowed to serve until their replacements, and. there have been no replacements even nominated. thiss something we're very critical of president obama for. there have been a lot of problems with campaign finance. the citizens united decision has changed the election landscape dramatically. congress has refused to pass any campaign financial information. president obama came in on a pledge of campaign finance reform and he has not really follow through. a lot of groups, including common cause, public citizens, have all been pushing this petition.

>> the committee on administration basically oversees is eac, and the fec, and then we certainly have influence over the f-fap process. so, of course we also issue the members parking passes and things like that. but that was not the heart of your question. >> that would be a fair amount of leverage. i'm trying to find out who i should i be talking to? >> basically what we are dealing with is fec, we had a hearing with them and eac, we had a couple of hearings with them and then the military voting process as well. and then -- >> and the department of justice, at least discussions o proposals, with regard to personal liabilities? secretaries of states? >> i hope we have influence over that as well. how much they listen is an open question. >> congressman rokita, ross miller from nevada. some of the discussions this weekend in our conference have centered around the eac, obviously this organization, as you are aware, has twice taken the position that we believe that the eac should be sunsetted. there's now some discussion as to what to do in the interim. and, i was wondering if you cou

this is the car that flew off of the road towards the kfc and this is the fec that he was in. do you feel fortunate? >> yes. >> his wife pamela, brought him pain medicine. he is sore, but otherwise. although he lives close to the kfc, he said last night was the first time he had been there in over a decade, and he had just sat down to eat when he heard something. >> i heard a sound bump, bump, bump. >> he never saw it when it crashed into him. the driver, hellen louise smith was killed and the passengers survived. witnesses say the driver was going way too fast. he notes that if she had lost control just moments earlier he would have been dead with her. >> the car would have crushed me. >> he said it was also good that he had not backed out of the parking spot yet. >> if that car had not been there, there probably would have been more lives taken. >> tonight, pamela says is eight miracle that his life was not taken. -- says it is a miracle his life was not taken. >> damage that far up on the kentucky fried chicken. by the way, the driver of that bmw, smith we learned just last

but gingrich is now facing some less than friendly questions about his financial dealings from the fecjoining us now from washington is rick tyler, a former gingrich spokesman and now a former adviser to the gingrich super pac, winning our future. rick, thanks for being on the show. >> glad to be here. >> rick, i know you are not coordinating in any way with the gingrich campaign, but i thought this was a telling quote. "the washington times" was asking you about whether -- about these payments to staff at your super pac, winning our future head becky burkett paid herself $220,000 in donated money last night, and your explanation, your quote was, in this business, we could all be out of a job next -- you just don't know. people make more knowing that this could be a short-term contract. that would seem to suggest, rick, that perhaps newt gingrich may not be in this race for that much longer. >> well, i wasn't relating to that. i was relating to, you know, a long-term job would be several years, or maybe an entire career. in this business, we basically all know we're out of business nex

the fec's communication and has been informing recommendations for best practice for best practices for communication systems. how do you see this process contributing to improvements in cyber security or, said another way, what is fcc's role in the coordinated defense that we heard about? >> i'm really glad you said that because i've been sitting here trying to remember what it stood for. i had gotten all but two of the letters. we all said when you talk about cloud and mobile that we're moving to a world where the role of the service providers is going to be more information. and that's where fcc and ntia are the lead agencies. right now there are others, of course narks are involved. but fcc originally looked at this issue and they were afraid that if they took too active a role, as i understand it, they might be seen as trying to regulate the internet. and they wanted to avoid that. so instead they have taken on an approach that works more on coordination with private sector experts, with developing venues for these private sector experts to get together and encouraging them to come

was appointed to thede and successfully got him to withdraw his application to be confirmed by the fec because they said he used so much political influence in the upho georgia photo id law. so hans is deeply invested in voter id laws. he has the right to his beliefs, but it's not just the aclu who is concerned about this. there are many secretary of states who are concerned about the burdens these photo id laws place on the electoral process. >> i didn't realize this was going to devolve into personal attacks. i believe i have the ability to respond to that. >> okay. you do. >> the justice department pre cleared the georgia voter id law because all the data that was submitted by the state showed it would not be drim nah tory. the chief of the voting section, a 30-yeesh veteran of the department, a career lawyer testified before congress that his opinion was it was not discriminatory. who was correct? some of the employees who complained? well, in the aclu lawsuit that was filed against the georgia voter id law after pre clearance, a claim was made that the law was discriminatory under

in compliance at all, and i would just urge you and ask your thoughts as you give oversight to the fec, the eac, and certainly -- >> doj. >> to the justice department. but any ways you can help influence to make them realize that, you know, we want a working relationship as we do these things, and we're also subject, as you know, to what the legislature's pass in our states as we go through the process that we would certainly appreciate that at the state level. >> absolutely, sir. i will advocate for it. if you ever hear that i'm not, don't be bashful about letting me know. i try not to forget where i came from and want to go back to. yes, sir. >> jason gant in colorado. i know that the federal is battling with issues every day and that the federal government is a lot of times out of whack compared to what some of the states are doing, but with that note, with the help america vote act of 2002 and getting things ready for '03 and '04, those machines we've had for disabled folks, the ballot box, those systems are pushing at least ten elections after this fall, this summer, and there's g

the fec reports that just came out seems to have cleaned up 2011.e obama campaign happy with these numbers? how much more do they hope to raise before november. >> this puts them on pace to get ahead of where they were in 2008. and a lot of those numbers came from small donors less than $200 came from about $400 people. so that's right in their keeping of trying to get small donors access to the campaign trying to get a lot of their contributions from people who don't have the big fat wallets to get them going. that was a huge part of the fund-raising the obama campaign did a few weeks ago. is there any concern the money won't come in like it did last time? >> they expect a bigger push for money and bigger rainfall if you will, once the republicans have settled on a nominee. right now you have several candidates. you don't have a guy who you can point to. so they are anticipating a bigger flow of money as the republicans get close to making their choice for 2012. >> how important are the super pacs for president obama? >> they are quite important. t

they were just alarmed at the numbers when they saw them in the latest fec filings. you get to 7 or 8 to 1 is the ratio for conservative group fund-raising in the super-pacs against what the liberals have in their kitties. they looked at those numbers and thought they better put out a message, which is send in those big checks. >> jane, do you stee any alternative choice mere for the practical politician in the president's position trying to get a 51% victory in november? any choice other than in effect giving the nod to super-pacs to help them out? >> no. i think it's kind of a ridiculous thing to accuse them of being hypocritical. they're playing by the rules of 2012 and the rules were not the rules pa obama want upped. they're the rules supreme court set in place. it would be ridiculous not to play by the rules. they're right that it would be unilateral disarmament and they'll he not up, you know, without the funds they need to compete. it's a whole new landscape out there. >> go ahead, john. >> we had a clear precedent for the decision the president made today by

prosperity which is the koch brothers primary vehicle is a non-profit group and doesn't report to the fec and how much. there is this sort of aura of mystery and intrigue about the koch brothers that only grows because while they stay politically active, they don't report when they're doing it. >> indeed. let me play what president obama said to mat t. >> it's not going to be enough to say the other guy is a bum. you have to explain to the american people who are pretty sophisticated consumers, tell me what your plan is. >> mike, what do you think newt gingrich or john kerry would say. i'm not sure the president is right. it seems to me if you spend millions of dollars in negative advertising, you produce the effects that mitt romney has seen against one newt gingrich. >> this is one of the classics of the examples of the success of attack ads. look at what happened in iowa. starting in early december, newt gingrich was at the to of the polls at 28%. he was number one and the romney super pac launched this relentless barrage of attack ads against him and a month later they cut gingrich's

guest: the fec is simply not doing its job. we to make sure this election is handled fairly thank you so much for joining us. the we go live to the house floor. c-span2 c-span3 the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. february 7, 2012. i hereby appoint the honorable todd c. young to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 17, 2012, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. the chair will alternative recognition between the -- alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and minority whip limited to five minutes each but in no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. the chair recognizes the gent

>> what we're dealing fec we had a hearing with them. eeac we had hearings with them and the military voting process. >> and the department of justice at least discussions or proposals with respect to personal liability of secretary of states, private rights of action? >> i certainly would hope we have influence over that process as well. how much they listen is an open question. >> congressman, rokita, ross miller from nevada. some of the discussions this weekend at our conference have centered around the eac. obviously this organization as you're aware has twice taken the position that we believe that the eac should be sunseted. there is now some discussion as to what to do in the interim and i was wondering if you could just offer a little bit of background what is happening in congress with the eac and offer any potential predictions what evently may result? >> thank you, ross. as you all i'm sure know, a bill was heard in housed a administration to defund and otherwise sunset repeal the enabling language that instituted the election

we just learned that restore our future held back the filing with the fec, which was required by midnight tonight until after romney gave his victory speech. they didn't want to step on it. they didn't want attention. easy to see why. $7.9 million during the last six months of the year. by far the biggest super pac. newt gingrich only raised 2.1 and the obama super pac, only 4 hnt $4 million. far below the ambitious goals they have set. then you look at the list and really see how with the super pacs we get the billionaire donors who can pump enormous amounts of money. seven separate million dollar checks came in from -- to that romney super pac. a lot of energy guys. bill coke of the coke brothers fame kicked in a million dollars. and then there's a strange one from idaho. a devout mormon who run a wellness company under the name of malucha, that contributed a million dollars. but we're going to have a lot of fun over the next few days looking at this list. trying to figure out who these people are and what their angles are. it's clear they had a big impact on the election. >> the proble

other thing you have to note is that even if you take small dollar donations which is defined by the fech you have to disclose the name of who's doing it, below which you can do anonymously if you're giving directly to a campaign, even people giving small dollars, $100, $150, the percentage of the population that gives any money to any candidate ever is tiny. is very tiny. it is a very -- when we think about american democratization in toto, the broad citizenship of the country, it's democr democratizing for the 10% of people who give to cam panes. the overwhelming majority never give a dollar to campaigns. >> why should we? what are people getting for a dollar. >> when i think of the small dollar donations, the thing i can shake from my head is listening to john edwards in 2008. >> excuse me, who was that? >> john edwards telling the story of a little kid who sold his bike to send $25 into the campaign. and then flash forward 18 months and we're hearing about the payments that he made to his former mistress who made these quote, unquote campaign documentaries. i'm thinking -- >> that ki

fec reporting period ended january 31, so a lot articles about money and politics. the front-page of "the financial times" -- that is the front page of "the financial times." inside "usa today" -- that is "usa today's" take on it. here is a chart that shows individual donors to campaigns. you can see president obama has well over 25,000 individual donations so far. and here are the republicans, down here, under 5000 each. the blue line it is mitt romney, a trending up but still well below the president's at this time. massachusetts, sandra, you are on "washington journal." caller: i was just wondering why they can't -- i am at 6%, and people that are like us, we are locked in at 6%. and we need it dropped down to the current mortgage that they are giving everybody across the country, except for us who have been in four years, so that we can repair our homes. that would give material and work to other people. we need help. host: what is your current situation? caller: right now we are at 6%. host: are you under water, behind your mortgage? caller: not behind at all.

the fec told by organization that not only could we not, but if we did, it would be considered a willfuliolation of the law. mccain fine gold, the law that stopped us from doing it, actually took political speech and criminalize it. it was not a civil wealthy any longer, it was a criminal penalty. my board of directors and i would have been under penalty of criminal prosecution, five years per count, for making a documentary and advertising and on television. i literally had to stop and say -- how is that possible? do we not have a first amendment? they said i did not. i said that we could not wait for the government to come after us. that we would go after them. of course, their lawyers laugh at us. the first time we were in court, the judge laughed at us in open court. it is really a remarkable odyssey. host of this was 2007? guest: yes, we went to court about the documentary film that we made about hillary clinton. obviously it was not a positive piece for her, but that did not matter to us. it was the principle of the fight. we went all of the way to the supreme court. of course, we