4404 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 19 /Thursday, January 29, 1998 / Proposed Rules

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

11 CFR Chapter I

[Notice 1998—4]

Composition of the Commission

AGENCY: Federal Election Commission.

ACTION: Notice of disposition of petition

for rulemaking.

SUMMARY: The Commission announces

its disposition of a Petition for

Rulemaking filed on December 4, 1997,

by John J. Wheeling, Treasurer of the

National Reform Party Organizing

Committee. The petition asked the

Commission to amend its rules to

require either that two members of the

current six-member Commission be

affiliated with minor political parties, or

to expand the Commission from six to

nine members, with the three new

members required to be affiliated with

minor political parties. Further

information is provided in the

supplementary information that follows.

DATES: March 2, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms.

Susan E. Propper, Assistant General

Counsel, or Ms. Rita A. Reimer,

Attorney, 999 E Street, N.W.,

Washington, D.C. 20463, (202) 219–3690

or (800) 424–9530.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On

December 4, 1997, the Commission

received a Petition for Rulemaking from

John J. Wheeling, Treasurer of the

National Reform Party Organizing

Committee. The Petition asked the

Commission to amend its rules to

require either that two members of the

current six-member Commission be

affiliated with minor political parties; or

to expand the Commission from six to

nine members, with the three new

members required to be affiliated with

minor political parties. The Petition

states that this action is necessary to

protect the rights of minor political

parties which, it argues, are infringed by

what it claims is a statutory requirement

at 2 U.S.C. 437c(a)(1) that the sixmember Commission be composed of

three Commissioners affiliated with the

Democratic Party, and three affiliated

with the Republican Party.

The Petition does not identify the

specific section(s) of the regulations to

be affected by these changes, as required

by the Commission’s rules governing

rulemaking petitions at 11 CFR

200.2(b)(3), because the Commission’s

rules do not address this situation. Nor

could they, because the requested

actions are outside the scope of the

Commission’s rulemaking authority. For

this reason the Commission did not

publish a Notice of Availability in the

Federal Register seeking comments on

the Petition’s merits, which action is

normally taken pursuant to 11 CFR

200.3(a)(1) for petitions that meet the

requirements of paragraph 200.2(b).

The Constitution at Art. II, section 2,

cl. 2 provides that the President ‘‘shall

nominate, and by and with the Advice

and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint

* * * [all] Officers of the United States,

whose Appointments are not herein

otherwise provided for, and which shall

be established by Law.’’ Congress has by

law established a six-member Federal

Election Commission, 2 U.S.C.

437c(a)(1); and Congress, not the

Commission, has the sole authority to

alter its size, either by adding three

additional Commissioners or in any

other way.

Under the Appointments Clause, the

President is entitled to choose the

individuals to nominate as

Commissioners. However, it has been

long recognized that ‘‘it is entirely

proper for Congress to specify the

qualifications for an office that it has

created.’’ Bowsher v. Synar, 478 U.S.

714, 740 (1986) (Stevens, J., concurring).

The provision in section 437c(a)(1) that

‘‘no more than 3 [of the six] members of

the Commission’’ appointed by the

President ‘‘may be affiliated with the

same political party’’ simply sets the

necessary qualifications for the

members of the Commission. Again, it is

for Congress, and not the Commission,

to determine how, if at all, these

qualifications should be changed.

The Commission notes that there is

nothing in the text of the law to require

that the Commission be made up of

three Democrats and three Republicans.

The President can comply with this

provision by choosing from among

millions of persons affiliated with

political parties, and millions more not

affiliated with any party. The fact that

Presidents to date have appointed only

Democrats and Republicans as

Commissioners does not mean that this

will continue in the future, when they

may choose to appoint a member of

another political party, or an

independent affiliated with no political

party.

Moreover, contrary to the petitioner’s

claim, the statutory requirement that no

more than three Commissioners be

affiliated with the same political party

does not discriminate against minor

parties. In fact, the reverse is true: By

ensuring that no more than three

Commissioners be affiliated with the

same political party, and at the same

time requiring an absolute majority of

four votes for the Commission to take

formal action, 2 U.S.C. 437c(c), Congress

has acted to insure that no political

party will be able to single-handedly

dictate Commission action. These

considerations, however, are secondary

to the Constitutional and statutory

provisions, discussed above, under

which the Commission is powerless to

take the requested action.

The Commission’s rules governing

rulemaking petitions state 11 CFR 200.5

(a) and (d) that the Commission’s

decision on whether to initiate a

rulemaking in response to a rulemaking

petition may include, inter alia,

consideration of the Commission’s

statutory authority and the necessity of

statutory revision to accomplish the

requested result. The Commission

believe these factors are controlling and,

therefore, at its open meeting of January

22, 1998, voted not a initiate a

rulemaking to reconstitute the

Commission as requested in this

Petition.

Dated: January 23, 1998.

Joan D. Aikens,

Chairman, Federal Election Commission.

[FR Doc. 98–2098 Filed 1–28–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6715–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

14 CFR Part 39

[Docket No. 97–NM–163–AD]

RIN 2120–AA64

Airworthiness Directives; British

Aerospace Model BAe 146–100A,

–200A, and –300A and Model Avro

146–RJ Series Airplanes

AGENCY: Federal Aviation

Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking

(NPRM).

SUMMARY: This document proposes the

adoption of a new airworthiness

directive (AD) that is applicable to

certain British Aerospace Model BAe

146–100A, –200A, and –300A and

Model Avro 146–RJ series airplanes.

This proposal would require repetitive

inspections of the attachment brackets

between the horizontal and vertical

stabilizers to detect intergranular

corrosion, and follow-on actions. This

proposal is prompted by issuance of

mandatory continuing airworthiness

information by a foreign civil

airworthiness authority. The actions

specified by the proposed AD are

intended to detect and correct reduced

structural integrity of the stabilizer

brackets due to corrosion, which could