[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3147 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3147

 To amend the House of Representatives Administrative Reform Technical 
 Corrections Act to require that certain types of services be provided 
          at no cost to constituents, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 21, 2015

  Mr. Peters introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                   Committee on House Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the House of Representatives Administrative Reform Technical 
 Corrections Act to require that certain types of services be provided 
          at no cost to constituents, 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 ``Constituent Services Disclosure Act 
of 2015''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON MEMBERS' REPRESENTATIONAL ALLOWANCE RELATING TO 
              CONSTITUENT SERVICES.

    Section 101 of the House of Representatives Administrative Reform 
Technical Corrections Act (2 U.S.C. 5341) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsections (c), (d), and (e) as 
        subsections (d), (e), and (f), respectively;
            (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the following new 
        subsection:
    ``(c) Constituent Services.--
            ``(1) In general.--Of the Members' Representational 
        Allowance, 20 percent shall not be available to a Member's 
        office unless such office provides certain constituent services 
        at no cost. For purposes of the preceding sentence, such 
        constituent services include assistance with respect to the 
        following matters:
                    ``(A) Passports.
                    ``(B) Individual Federal income tax returns.
                    ``(C) Tax-exempt status applications under section 
                501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
                    ``(D) The Medicare program under title XVIII of the 
                Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395 et seq.).
                    ``(E) Social Security benefits under title II of 
                the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401 et seq.).
                    ``(F) Supplemental security benefits under title 
                XVI of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1381 et 
                seq.).
                    ``(G) Student loans (as defined in section 
                5379(a)(1)(B) of title 5, United States Code).
                    ``(H) Benefits provided under title 38, United 
                States Code, or other laws administered by the 
                Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
            ``(2) Assistance defined.--In this subsection the term 
        `assistance', with respect to a matter described in paragraph 
        (1), means--
                    ``(A) requesting information;
                    ``(B) requesting status reports;
                    ``(C) arranging appointments;
                    ``(D) advocating for prompt consideration of the 
                matter based on the merits of the case; and
                    ``(E) expressing an opinion on the matter.
            ``(3) Publication.--Each Member's office shall make 
        publicly available in print or on the congressional website of 
        such office all the constituent services the office provides.
            ``(4) Effective date.--This subsection shall take effect on 
        the date that is six months after the date of the enactment of 
        the Constituent Services Disclosure Act of 2015.''; and
            (3) in subsection (f), as redesignated by paragraph (1), by 
        striking ``This section'' and inserting ``Except as provided in 
        paragraph (4) of subsection (c), this section''.

SEC. 3. REGULATIONS.

    Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Committee on House Administration of the House of Representatives 
shall prescribe regulations with respect to the constituent services 
described in section 101(c) of the House of Representatives 
Administrative Reform Technical Corrections Act (2 U.S.C. 5341), as 
amended by section 2 of this Act.

SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that private companies that provide 
assistance to individuals that is the same or similar to the assistance 
described in section 101 of the House of Representatives Administrative 
Reform Technical Corrections Act (2 U.S.C. 5341), as amended by section 
2 of this Act, should disclose that such assistance could be provided 
at no cost by the office of a Member of the House of Representatives.
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