[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2630 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2630

    To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit 
    authorized committees and leadership PACs of a candidate or an 
     individual holding Federal office from making payments to the 
candidate's or individual's spouse, to require such committees and PACs 
to report on disbursements made to the immediate family members of the 
            candidate or individual, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 7, 2007

    Mr. Schiff (for himself, Mr. Castle, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Platts, Mr. 
 Clyburn, Mr. Emanuel, Mr. Larson of Connecticut, Mr. Van Hollen, and 
Ms. Slaughter) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                   Committee on House Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit 
    authorized committees and leadership PACs of a candidate or an 
     individual holding Federal office from making payments to the 
candidate's or individual's spouse, to require such committees and PACs 
to report on disbursements made to the immediate family members of the 
            candidate or individual, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Campaign Expenditure Transparency 
Act''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITING PAYMENT OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS TO SPOUSES OF CANDIDATES; 
              DISCLOSURE OF PAYMENTS TO FAMILY MEMBERS.

    (a) Prohibition.--Section 313 of the Federal Election Campaign Act 
of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 439a) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new subsection:
    ``(c) Restrictions on Payments to Spouses; Disclosure of Payments 
to Family Members.--
            ``(1) Prohibition.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Notwithstanding any other 
                provision of this Act, an authorized committee of a 
                candidate and a leadership PAC of a candidate or 
                individual holding Federal office may not make any 
                payment to the spouse of the candidate or individual 
                (as the case may be) for services provided to the 
                committee or leadership PAC.
                    ``(B) Exception for reimbursements for travel.--
                Subparagraph (A) does not apply to amounts paid to 
                reimburse a spouse for any travel expenses which the 
                committee or leadership PAC involved is permitted to 
                reimburse under this Act.
            ``(2) Disclosure of payments to immediate family members.--
        In addition to any other information included in a report 
        submitted by an authorized committee or a leadership PAC of a 
        candidate or individual holding Federal office under section 
        304, the committee or PAC shall include in the report a 
        separate statement of any disbursements made to any immediate 
        family member of the candidate or individual (as the case may 
        be) during the period covered by the report, as well as any 
        disbursements made to the spouse of the candidate or individual 
        which the committee or leadership PAC is permitted to make 
        under the exception described in paragraph (1)(B).
            ``(3) Treatment of payments to certain entities.--For 
        purposes of paragraphs (1) and (2), a payment to an entity 
        shall be considered to be a payment to the spouse or an 
        immediate family member of the candidate or individual (as the 
        case may be) if the spouse or immediate family member is an 
        officer or director of the entity.
            ``(4) Exception for nominal reimbursements.--Paragraphs (1) 
        and (2) do not apply to nominal amounts paid to reimburse a 
        spouse or immediate family member for supplies and equipment 
        used by the committee or leadership PAC involved, so long as 
        the total amount paid by the committee or leadership PAC for 
        all such reimbursements during a calendar year does not exceed 
        $500.
            ``(5) Definitions.--In this subsection--
                    ``(A) the term `immediate family member' means the 
                son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, mother, 
                father, brother, sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, 
                or grandchild of the candidate or individual involved; 
                and
                    ``(B) the term `leadership PAC' means a political 
                committee which is directly or indirectly established, 
                maintained, or controlled by a candidate for election 
                for Federal office or an individual holding Federal 
                office but is not an authorized committee of the 
                candidate or individual, except that such term does not 
                include any political committee of a political 
                party.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 313(a)(1) of such Act (2 U.S.C. 
439a(a)(1)) is amended by striking ``for otherwise'' and inserting 
``subject to subsection (c), for otherwise''.

SEC. 3. IMPOSITION OF PENALTY AGAINST CANDIDATE OR OFFICEHOLDER.

    Section 309 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 
437g) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(e) In the case of a violation of section 313(c) committed by an 
authorized committee or leadership PAC of a candidate or individual 
holding Federal office, if the candidate or individual knew of the 
violation, any penalty imposed under this section shall be imposed on 
the candidate or individual and not on the committee or leadership 
PAC.''.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall apply with respect to 
elections occurring after December 2007.
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