110 HR 2630 : Campaign Expenditure Transparency Act U.S. House of Representatives 2007-07-24 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IIB 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2630 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES July 24, 2007 Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration AN ACT To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit certain political committees from compensating the spouse of the candidate for services provided to or on behalf of the committee, to require such committees to report on payments made to the spouse and the immediate family members of the candidate, and for other purposes.

1.

Short Title

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

2.

Prohibiting Use of Campaign Funds to Compensate Spouses of Candidates; Disclosure of Payments Made to Spouses and Family Members

(a)

Prohibition; Disclosure

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)

Prohibiting Compensation of Spouses; Disclosure of Payments to Spouses and Family Members

(1)

Prohibiting compensation of spouses

Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, no authorized committee of a candidate or any other political committee established, maintained, or controlled by a candidate or an individual holding Federal office (other than a political committee of a political party) shall directly or indirectly compensate the spouse of the candidate or individual (as the case may be) for services provided to or on behalf of the committee. (2)

Disclosure of payments to spouses and immediate family members

In addition to any other information included in a report submitted under section 304 by a committee described in paragraph (1), the committee shall include in the report a separate statement of any payments, including direct or indirect compensation, made to the spouse or any immediate family member of the candidate or individual involved during the period covered by the report. (3)

Immediate family member defined

In this subsection, 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. . (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.

3.

Imposition of Penalty Against Candidate or Officeholder

(a)

In General

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 a committee described in such section, if the candidate or individual involved knew of the violation, any penalty imposed under this section shall be imposed on the candidate or individual and not on the committee. . (b)

Prohibiting Reimbursement by Committee

Section 313(c) of such Act (2 U.S.C. 439a(c)), as added by section 2(a), is amended— (1)by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4); and (2)by inserting after paragraph (2) the following new paragraph: (3)

Prohibiting reimbursement by committee of penalty paid by candidate for violations

A committee described in paragraph (1) may not make any payment to reimburse the candidate or individual involved for any penalty imposed for a violation of this subsection which is required to be paid by the candidate or individual under section 309(e). .

4.

Effective Date

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

Passed the House of Representatives July 23, 2007. Lorraine C. Miller, Clerk.Deborah M. Spriggs, Deputy Clerk.