The Biden administration continues to hide its efforts to interfere with elections. In a recent letter authored by Sen. Bill Hagerty, Senate Republicans are demanding the White House and relevant agencies provide copies of their plans to implement Executive Order 14019 entitled “Promoting Access to Voting.” The letter was co-signed by 23 senators, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

The WH has refused to be transparent about the use of taxpayer funds to implement EO 14019—instructing federal agencies to engage in voter mobilization. I led my colleagues in calling out Biden for ignoring our demands for transparency on taxpayer-funded voter-turnout plans. pic.twitter.com/TH87VB6pLR

— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) November 30, 2023

The Executive Order requires more than 600 federal agencies to “expand access to voter registration and election information” which includes assisting applicants in both registering to vote and vote-by-mail applications and ensuring that federal prisoners are registered to vote. In the letter, Republicans highlight that Congress first requested information about agencies’ plans to interfere with the election shortly after Biden signed the order but have received no information in response.

The Biden administration’s stonewalling information about agencies’ plans to implement the order is not limited to Congress, as it has refused to fulfill requests to turn documents over to the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) and America First Legal (AFL). In response to an order from a federal judge, for example, the Biden administration gave FGA 135 pages of heavily redacted information instead of the 5,500 records required while AFL has received conflicting answers from agencies.

Congress did not appropriate funds for the administration to interfere with elections. An earlier letter from Senator Hagerty points out federal law prohibits the President from spending non-appropriated funds. In the May 2023 letter, Senators demand that the administration provide a “full accounting of all federal funding used to-date to implement [the Executive Order].”

The Committee on House Administration also addressed this important issue recently when it passed legislation that would requrie Congressional oversight of the implementation of the Executive Order. The Daily Signal reported:

The bill also requires every plan made under the executive order to be submitted to Congress for review. Since the executive order was put into place, the House Administration Committee, in conjunction with several other committees, sent letters to 12 federal agencies asking for information relating to their implementation of the executive order.

No Biden administration agency has responded to congressional inquiries, according to Republicans.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo.—who isn’t a House Administration Committee member—passed the committee on a 5-4 party-line vote. 

“The electoral process is one of the most important features of our republic,” Hageman said in a statement. “We cannot permit the Biden administration to tamper with it as they continue violating our Constitution on a daily basis.”

Republicans are trying to hold the Biden administration accountable, preventing it from interfering with elections, while the administration is doing everything it can to avoid transparency.