WASHINGTON – Today, the Committee on House Administration Chairman Candice Miller, R-Mich., and Committee member Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., issued the following statement ahead of the Senate confirmation hearing to place two commissioners at the obsolete Election Assistance Commission (EAC):

"For the past two years, the EAC has limped along without purpose or benefit, costing taxpayers over 11 million each year. It's a zombie agency that epitomizes bureaucracy and government waste, which is why this Committee and the House have voted multiple times to shut it down – but not the Senate. To the contrary, Wednesday, the Democratic-controlled Senate is holding a confirmation hearing to place commissioners there for the first time in two years.

"The EAC is dead, and having two commissioners carrying it between them like a scene from Weekend At Bernie's doesn't make it any more alive, or any more useful. Unfortunately, since the Senate changed its rules, it could approve these nominations on a purely partisan basis and continue to force taxpayers to subsidize government waste."

BACKGROUND:

The EAC, which has been without commissioners for the past two years, was intended to sunset in 2005. Despite fulfilling its purpose, having exhausted the federal funds it was responsible for distributing to states and completing its required research, the agency remarkably continues to operate – costing taxpayers an estimated $11.5 million annually. Since the 112th Congress, Representative Harper has introduced three bills to eliminate the obsolete agency. Two of Harper's bills were approved by the Committee and one, H.R. 3463, passed the House 235-190 in December of 2011.

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