[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 120 (Monday, September 10, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H5743-H5744]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1700
    DESIGNATION OF INDIVIDUAL AUTHORIZED TO MAKE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE 
              DISBURSEMENTS IN EVENT OF DEATH OF CANDIDATE

  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend 
the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 406) to amend the Federal Election 
Campaign Act of 1971 to permit candidates for election for Federal 
office to designate an individual who will be authorized to disburse 
funds of the authorized campaign committees of the candidate in the 
event of the death of the candidate.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                H.R. 406

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

     SECTION 1. DESIGNATION OF INDIVIDUAL AUTHORIZED TO MAKE 
                   CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE DISBURSEMENTS IN EVENT OF 
                   DEATH OF CANDIDATE.

       (a) In General.--Section 302 of the Federal Election 
     Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 432) is amended by adding at 
     the end the following new subsection:
       ``(j)(1) Each candidate may, with respect to each 
     authorized committee of the candidate, designate an 
     individual who shall be responsible for disbursing funds in 
     the accounts of the committee in the event of the death of 
     the candidate, and may also designate another individual to 
     carry out the responsibilities of the designated individual 
     under this subsection in the event of the death or incapacity 
     of the designated individual or the unwillingness of the 
     designated individual to carry out the responsibilities.
       ``(2) In order to designate an individual under this 
     subsection, the candidate shall file with the Commission a 
     signed written statement (in a standardized form developed by 
     the Commission) that contains the name and address of the 
     individual and the name of the authorized committee for which 
     the designation shall apply, and that may contain the 
     candidate's instructions regarding the disbursement of the 
     funds involved by the individual. At any time after filing 
     the statement, the candidate may revoke the designation of an 
     individual by filing with the Commission a signed written 
     statement of revocation (in a standardized form developed by 
     the Commission).
       ``(3) Upon the death of a candidate who has designated an 
     individual for purposes of paragraph (1), funds in the 
     accounts of each authorized committee of the candidate may be 
     disbursed only under the direction and in accordance with the 
     instructions of such individual, subject to the terms and 
     conditions applicable to the disbursement of such funds under 
     this Act or any other applicable Federal or State law (other 
     than any provision of State law which authorizes any person 
     other than such individual to direct the disbursement of such 
     funds).
       ``(4) Nothing in paragraph (3) may be construed to grant 
     any authority to an individual who is designated pursuant to 
     this subsection other than the authority to direct the 
     disbursement of funds as provided in such paragraph, or may 
     be construed to affect the responsibility of the treasurer of 
     an authorized committee for which funds are disbursed in 
     accordance with such paragraph to file reports of the 
     disbursements of such funds under section 304(a).''.
       (b) Inclusion of Designation in Statement of Organization 
     of Committee.--Section 303(b) of the Federal Election 
     Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 433(b)) is amended--
       (1) in paragraph (5), by striking ``and'' at the end;
       (2) in paragraph (6), by striking the period at the end and 
     inserting ``; and''; and
       (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
       ``(7) in the case of an authorized committee of a candidate 
     who has designated an individual under section 302(j) 
     (including a second individual designated to carry out the 
     responsibilities of that individual under such section in the 
     event of that individual's death or incapacity or 
     unwillingness to carry out the responsibilities) to disburse 
     funds from the accounts of the committee in the event of the 
     death of the candidate, a copy of the statement filed by the 
     candidate with the Commission under such section (as well as 
     a copy of any subsequent statement of revocation filed by the 
     candidate with the Commission under such section).''.

     SEC. 2. EFFECTIVE DATE.

       The amendments made by this Act shall apply with respect to 
     authorized campaign committees which are designated under 
     section 302(e)(1) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 
     1971 before, on, or after the date of the enactment of this 
     Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Daniel E. Lungren) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Brady) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.


                             General Leave

  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous 
consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend 
their remarks on this bill.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such 
time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation was introduced by our colleague, 
Congressman Walter Jones. It simply amends the Federal Elections 
Campaign Act of 1971 to permit candidates for election for Federal 
office to designate an individual who would be authorized to disburse 
campaign funds in the event of the death of the candidate.
  Every private citizen who decides to become a candidate for public 
office is driven by issues that inspire and motivate them to want to 
serve. Often those issues outlive the individuals who champion their 
ideals.
  This bill will ensure that every Federal candidate will have the 
opportunity to appoint a trusted individual to distribute campaign 
funds in the event they die.
  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 406, and I reserve the balance 
of my time.
  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I support this bill to allow a candidate for Federal 
office to designate someone to disburse his or her unspent campaign 
funds in the event of the candidate's death. Under this bill, a Federal 
candidate could designate another person by filing the appropriate form 
with the FEC and could revoke or change the designation at any time.
  The bill allows the candidate to designate a second individual to 
carry out the duties and wishes of the candidate, within the limits of 
the law, should the first designee die or become unable to perform 
these duties. H.R. 406 further allows candidates to provide 
instructions for distribution of campaign funds as allowed by law.
  H.R. 406 is designed to help campaign treasurers facing conflicting 
State laws in cases where Federal candidates die leaving unspent 
balances in their campaign treasuries, which happens from time to time. 
This measure offers a commonsense improvement to the Federal Election 
Campaign Act to deal with this situation.
  The House has passed similar legislation before, and I urge our 
Members to support it again. I pledge to my friend, Mr. Jones from 
North Carolina, that I will do whatever I can in my power, and I know 
my chairman will, too, to make sure the Senate does take this up so we 
can pass it into law.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I 
would yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones), 
a distinguished member on the Committee on Armed Services and the 
Committee on Financial Services.
  Mr. JONES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Brady. I want 
to thank you all for bringing this bill back to the floor of the House.
  This came to my attention--I would not have had any idea that if a 
candidate or an incumbent running as a candidate would die in office 
that their family would not decide how to disburse the money. It would 
go back to the treasurer of the campaign. And in cases, many times, 
that is probably what the family would want anyway.
  But what I found out with my own father who served here 26 years, and 
he died in office, was that it does create a problem. If the family has 
the authority to make the recommendation as to how to disburse the 
proceeds, it just makes for a very satisfactory time in a very 
difficult time when a family member dies.
  So to Mr. Lungren and Mr. Brady, thank you very much for bringing 
this bill to the floor of the House again. All this is is a simple 
change so that the candidate for Federal office can determine that he 
would like to have or she would like to have a person other than the 
treasurer to disburse the funds.
  If we pass this bill today, I want to ask my friend, Mr. Brady, to 
help me

[[Page H5744]]

with the Senate, and I'll reach out to the Republicans and maybe he can 
reach out to the Democrats and get this bill through because it is the 
right thing to do for the family in that tragic situation that can 
happen to any of us.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such 
time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to make it very, very clear: this does not change 
the law that the campaign funds would have to be used for a charitable 
purpose or for a political purpose, that is, to a party or candidate. 
It doesn't change that at all. It just changes the person who would 
have the decisionmaking responsibility. And since this is a situation 
where a Member or someone running for office would die, those funds, in 
some cases, would probably--the candidate would have wished them to go 
to a particular charity or series of charities. And this would ensure 
that those people who know best the candidate and know what his or her 
desires would be would make that determination.
  But it does not in any way change it so that it could be used for 
personal purposes by the family or anybody else designated. It would 
still have to go to those legitimate legal purposes for which campaign 
funds are limited. It would do nothing more than change the person who 
would make that determination, and we have a real-life experience of 
that occurring, and that is why I support this very strongly. It has 
been supported strongly in the House before; and if we can get the 
attention of our friends on the other side of the Capitol, we can make 
this happen, and I think it would be a good, good thing.
  So with that, I would urge my colleagues to support this legislation, 
and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 
406, a bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to 
permit candidates for Federal office to designate an individual to 
disburse the campaign funds of the candidate in the event of the 
candidate's death, authored by my colleague from North Carolina, Walter 
Jones.
  Unfortunately, he has personally experienced the situation that this 
legislation is attempting to remedy when his father--a 14 term member 
of this body--passed away and questions arose as to what to do with 
remaining campaign funds.
  Current law authorizes the campaign treasurer to disperse campaign 
funds but does not give instruction on how those funds should be spent 
in the event of a candidate's death.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 406 is a common-sense solution to resolving this 
potentially complex issue. I was proud to support the legislation when 
it came before the Committee on House Administration, and I urge all of 
my colleagues to support it today.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Daniel E. Lungren) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 406.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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