WASHINGTON – Today, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer encouraged his Democratic colleagues to vote against a bill (H.R. 672) that would reduce wasteful spending by eliminating the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) – an obsolete agency that has outlived its purpose and wildly mismanaged its resources.

According to the number two House Democrat, the agency continues to serve a valuable service to taxpayers. However, recent reviews of the Commission and its operations tell an entirely different story.

The EAC: Exactly What’s Wrong with Washington:

• The agency, recently the subject of two hiring discrimination lawsuits, spends over 50% of its budget on administrative costs. Its budget request for 2012 devoted 51.7% of its budget to management and overhead costs, meaning the agency would use $5,406,718 to manage programs totaling $3,486,601.
• Its electionresearch function is obsolete as it has completed 4 of the 5 federally mandated election studies. The one outstanding study is six years overdue and mired in interagency controversy.
• The Agency has allocated all of its remaining election grants and even zeroed out its requests for additional grant funds in its last three annual budget requests.
• Since 2005, the year Congress originally intended to sunset the EAC, the agency has more than doubled in size while its programs continue to decline.
• The National Association of Secretaries of State – the direct beneficiaries of the agency’s dwindling services – has passed two resolutions calling for the EAC’s dissolution.
• Despite its diminished role to state election administrators, the bloated agency pays its employees an average of over $100,000 – costing taxpayers millions each year.