The nation’s campaign finance regulator is proposing letting congressional and presidential candidates pay for a whole range of security protections from their campaign accounts.
The proposal from the campaign finance regulator comes amid a spike in threats to politicians; the U.S. Capitol Police said itwould allow federal candidates to use their campaign accounts to pay for things like security personnel, equipment like cameras or motion detectors at their homes and cybersecurity services — so long as these purchases “address ongoing dangers or threats” arising from their status as federal candidates or officials and they pay a fair market value.
Wednesday’s meeting will be the first step in this process. The agency’s six commissioners — three Democrats, three Republicans — are effectively voting today to open up this rule to public comment. After a sixty day comment period, the agency takes the comments into consideration and could make tweaks, before voting for the final rule. The rulemaking proposal is expected to draw bipartisan support, but this process means it won’t go into effect immediately.