By The Star Staff
Rep. José “Conny” Varela Fernández has introduced House Bill 2019, which would amend Act 222-2011 to enable the Office of the Electoral Comptroller (OCE by its Spanish initials) to oversee political action committees based outside of Puerto Rico that carry out campaign activities on the island.
Act 222, which governs the supervision of political campaigns in Puerto Rico, allows the OCE to supervise the financial activities of the campaign committees of political candidates in Puerto Rico. However, the supervision does not extend to political action committees (known as “super PACs”) established outside of Puerto Rico.
Recently, the Electoral Comptroller of Puerto Rico, Walter Vélez Martínez, expressed his frustration that Act 222 does not allow oversight of Super PACs. He said the number of Super PACs has increased because they have no limits on how much money they can receive and can also spend without limitations.
“We agree with the Electoral Comptroller that his office must supervise these Super PACs formed outside of Puerto Rico,” Varela said Sunday in a written statement. “After the 2020 election, we discovered that these organizations were used to circumvent the requirements of Law 222, which exists to protect our electoral system from corruption.”
“If we want to ensure the cleanliness of our donation and campaign spending processes, the OCE must have all the possible tools to supervise properly,” added the veteran Caguas legislator and deputy speaker of the island House of Representatives.
The amendments proposed were contained in a package of amendments that Varela had already filed as part of House Bill 1676, which “unfortunately did not have the endorsement of the members of the House,” he said.
“We hope that on this occasion, our colleagues understand the urgency of establishing these protection mechanisms and support approving these amendments,” Varela said.