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Chairman Steil Opening Statement:
Political speech is protected speech.
Our Founding Fathers enshrined the First Amendment in the Constitution.
Unfortunately, in our highly politicized political climate, the First Amendment has been under attack through the use of “misinformation czars” and “cancel culture.”
As a result, many Americans have grown concerned that their voice will be suppressed, or that their beliefs will be weaponized against them.
That’s exactly what we saw 10 years ago, nearly to the day, with the now infamous scandal at the IRS involving then Acting Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner.
On May 10, 2013, the IRS had to apologize to conservative organizations for inappropriately targeting their applications for tax-exempt status.
The federal government admitted to targeting a group of people because of their political beliefs.
That is un-American, and anti-democratic.
Over a decade later, we’re still having conversations about the weaponization of the IRS and DHS, the need to protect donor privacy, and other free-speech and freedom of association issues.
I am committed to upholding Americans’ First Amendment right to support candidates, causes, and organizations of their choice, without fear of retribution.
That’s why I’m focused on re-introducing the American Confidence in Elections Act, or ACE Act.
The ACE Act is our federalist approach to bolster election integrity and voter confidence, which in turn boosts voter participation.
One thing we can do to build voter confidence is prevent another Lois Lerner scandal from occurring.
The ACE Act will finally prohibit the IRS, and any other federal agency, from asking for an organization’s donor list, creating ad hoc standards, and applying them to ideologically opposed groups.
This will help to protect individuals from retribution, harassment, or intimidation based on their beliefs.
In addition to protecting donor privacy, the ACE Act will also bring greater transparency and accountability into the federal campaign finance system.
Last Congress, every single House Democrat voted to allow federal funds to be used toward their political campaigns.
The ACE Act will specifically prevent this from happening.
It also encourages federalism by strengthening state political parties.
Instead of being centers for voter organization and messaging, state parties are currently some of the most highly restricted organizations in our system.
Voters already think our political parties can work directly with their candidates with few restrictions—Republican Party with Republicans and Democrat Party with Democrats.
In reality, the outdated campaign finance system means that there are all sorts of hoops to jump through for this simple political process to work as expected.
It doesn’t make any sense.
Making the law work as voters expect will increase transparency in the campaign finance system, which in turn will boost voters’ confidence in our elections.
As we begin today’s hearing, I look forward to discussing some of these provisions and identifying what additional campaign finance reforms and donor privacy protections are necessary in restoring voter confidence.
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