Overview
- The FEC determined Citizens for Waters failed to accurately report 2020 receipts and disbursements, accepted $19,000 in excessive contributions and made four prohibited cash disbursements totaling $7,000.
- Citizens for Waters agreed to the civil penalty and will send its treasurer to a Federal Election Commission–sponsored political committee training within one year.
- Committee attorneys maintained the disclosure errors were unintentional and said legal counsel has been retained to guide new internal compliance procedures.
- This enforcement follows a 2023 probe into payments to Waters’s daughter and a 2018 FEC dismissal of an illegal contributions complaint.
- Waters has served in Congress since 1991 and leads House Democrats on the Financial Services Committee, drawing renewed scrutiny to her fundraising operations.