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Civil Division of the Department of Justice has experience enforcing an even wider variety of federallaws and regulations; the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division assists federal agencies like theDepartment of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Health and HumanServices, and others to carry out their regulatory obligations by initiating litigation against those whoviolate statutes or regulations. 258 In fact, giving the Department of Justice investigatory and enforcementpowers would be consistent with the structure that already exists in HAVA. While HAVA assigns theEAC a clearinghouse and advisory role, it also gives the DOJ enforcement authority to bring an actionfor declaratory and injunctive relief for failure to comply with HAVA’s minimum requirements forvoting systems, provisional voting and voter registration. 259C. Analogous RegimesBoth NHTSA and the CPSC have broad investigatory powers. 260 The CPSC has the authority to enterand inspect any factory, establishment, or conveyance used to facilitate placing goods into the stream ofcommerce. 261 NHTSA has similar authority. 262 The simple ability to investigate information uploadedto their databases, of course, falls within the ambit of these agencies’ powers. For example, it is theresponsibility of the Office of Defects Investigations within NHTSA to “elicit from every availablesource and evaluate on a continuing basis any information suggesting the existence of a safety-relateddefect.” 263 NHTSA’s databases allow the ODI to both elicit and evaluate this information, and as wehave discussed above, 264 investigations initiated after reviewing information in the databases have beenfruitful.Both NHTSA and the CPSC have subpoena power 265 and a recordkeeping requirement for the entitiesthat they regulate. 266 We propose that the new provision closely track this language, particularly that ofthe Consumer Product Safety Act of 1972. 267D. Key BenefitsEnsures Reliability of Information on the DatabaseThe information posted to the proposed database must be accurate so that false information does notmislead election officials, the public, the government, EAC, or unfairly sully vendors’ reputations. Thegovernment will need the tools necessary to ensure that only accurate information is posted to andremains on the site.Grants the Government Power to Effectively Respond to Information it ReceivesA recordkeeping requirement would allow the appropriate government agency to address reportedfailures or vulnerabilities of the machines quickly, without having to wait for vendors to gather thisinformation. Moreover, granting subpoena power to the appropriate government agency ensures, amongother things, that the agency will be able to gather the information it needs to adequately judge theseriousness of reported problems and ensure that proper steps have been taken to prevent malfunctionsor other failures from happening in the future.36 | Brennan Center for Justice