House Passes Ban On Work By Spouses on Campaigns

The House is debating H.R.2630, the Campaign Expenditure Transparency Act, which would prevent lawmakers from paying their spouses out of campaign or political action committee funds, and would also require the disclosure of all other immediate family members who are employed by the candidate's campaign.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Adam Schiff (CA-29), who spoke in favor of it on the floor:

Rep. Schiff: "And where, like most families these days, both members of the household need to work to support that family, there's nothing in this bill that would stop it. It does provide that a spouse, that has CPA skills or other skills, employ those skills on someone else's behalf, for compensation. They're more than welcome to provide those skills, as many of our spouses do, almost all of our spouses do, a volunteer basis to help our campaigns. But the appearance of impropriety and in some cases the actual impropriety of having spouses working on commissions where a percentage of everything the campaign raises effectively goes into the household of the officeholder is one of the driving forces behind this legislation."

Rep. Schiff described the bill in a release when he introduced it:

Schiff Introduces Bipartisan Measure to Prevent the Spouses of Elected Officials and Candidates from Collecting Campaign Checks

Washington, DC -- Today, in an effort to continue to raise the bar on ethical standards in Congress, Representative Adam Schiff introduced a bipartisan measure to end the potentially corrupt practice of allowing federal office holders and candidates to employ their spouses in their campaign. The Campaign Expenditure Transparency Act, cosponsored by Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE), would amend campaign finance laws to prohibit a practice whereby spouses of federal candidates are employed by the candidate's campaign and would also require the disclosure of all other immediate family members who are employed by the candidate's campaign.

"The practice of paying family members for work done on campaigns can breed corruption and invites abuse," Schiff said. "Candidates run for federal office to serve the public, not to financially profit from the campaign."

"I welcome Congressman Schiff's legislation to increase transparency in campaigns," said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. "House Democrats are following through on our pledge to change the way Washington does business -- including increasing transparency in election campaigns to prevent the misuse of funds."

"House Democrats pledged last fall to clean up the culture of corruption," said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. "Part of that is ensuring that no Member personally benefits from their official or campaign activities. The 'Campaign Expenditure Transparency Act' is a critical part of a larger solution to restore the public's confidence that their elected representatives are working in the people's interests and not their own."

The practice of paying family members, particularly spouses, has the potential to raise many conflicts of interests, given that the candidate stands to potentially benefit financially from any salary paid to a spouse. This bill halts that practice, and it further ensures that the public is informed of any payment made to an immediate family member from the campaign.

A particularly egregious practice involves the spouse of an elected official earning commissions for fundraising activity. In those situations, the candidate or elected official personally pockets a percentage of all campaign funds raised by their spouse.

Congressman Schiff has a long record of fighting for campaign finance reform. On his first day in Congress, he cosponsored the McCain/Feingold campaign finance reform legislation and helped organize freshman members to support its passage.