Dismantling Campaign Finance Oversight and Disclosure
Project 2025 proposes gutting FEC enforcement powers, eliminating disclosure requirements for dark money, and weakening campaign finance laws that protect election integrity.
Project 2025's FEC chapter (pp 864-867) is not about investor protection—it is about making it harder to know who is spending money in our elections and harder to hold campaigns accountable when they break the rules.
The humanitarian alternative
Instead of deregulating private offerings, Congress and the SEC should expand the accredited investor definition thoughtfully by adding a financial‑literacy test and a cap on how much unsophisticated investors can allocate to private placements. The SEC should retain and strengthen the CAT, increase funding for its oversight, and use it to publish aggregate market‑integrity metrics. Dodd‑Frank disclosures on conflict minerals, mine safety, resource extraction, and CEO pay should be retained and modernized — not repealed — so that investors have the material, comparable data they need to price risk accurately. SEC administrative proceedings should be preserved because they are faster and cheaper than Article III litigation; the reform that is genuinely needed is to strengthen due‑process protections inside those proceedings, not to eliminate the forum.
Rollback path — how this gets undone
This action has already been implemented. These are the concrete levers that could reverse it.
- Rescind EO on 'Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets' The next president can revoke the August 7, 2025 executive order directing SEC action; Congress can also block the SEC rule via a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act if the rule is finalized.
- Reverse SEC rule expanding accredited investor definition A future SEC chair can initiate a new rulemaking to restore the narrower 2019 definition; the current rulemaking should be paused pending this analysis.
- Defeat H. Rept. 119-560 in the Senate or veto the bill Opponents in the Senate can filibuster; if passed, the president could veto. For enacted legislation, a future Congress can repeal the repeal and restore conflict‑minerals disclosure.
- Reverse SEC internal policy reducing administrative proceedings A future SEC chair can issue a new delegation order restoring the authority to initiate enforcement cases and preserve administrative proceedings. Congress can hold oversight hearings and cut funding if the policy persists.
Original source — excerpted
project2025 Project 2025 ch. 29: Federal Election Commission (pp 864-867)"— 831 — Financial Regulatory Agencies l Either democratize access to private offerings by broadening the definition of accredited investor for purposes of Regulation D or eliminate the accredited investor restriction altogether.15 l Allow traditional self-certification of accredited investor status for all Regulation D Rule 506 offerings. l Exempt small micro-offerings from registration requirements.16 l Exempt small and intermittent finders from broker–dealer registration requirements and provide a simplified registration process for private placement brokers.17 l Exempt peer-to-peer lending from federal and state securities laws and reduce the regulatory burden on Regulation CF debt securities. l Make the Title I Emerging Growth Company (EGC) exemptions permanent for all EGCs. l Reduce the regulatory burden on small broker–dealers and exempt privately held, non-custodial broker–dealers from the requirements to use a PCAOB- registered firm for their audits. Congress should: l Amend the Internal Revenue Code to disregard crowdfunding and Regulation A shareholders for purposes of the 100-shareholder limit for Subchapter S corporations.18 BETTER CAPITAL MARKETS To…"