OMAR Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 856 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. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 5, 2021 Mr. TIFFANY (for himself and Mr. GALLAGHER) 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 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 imme- diate family members of the candidate, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Oversight for Members 4 And Relatives Act’’ or the ‘‘OMAR Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:06 Feb 25, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H856.IH H856 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 856 IH SEC. 2. PROHIBITING USE OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS TO COM- 1 PENSATE SPOUSES OF CANDIDATES; DISCLO- 2 SURE OF PAYMENTS MADE TO SPOUSES AND 3 FAMILY MEMBERS. 4 (a) PROHIBITION; DISCLOSURE.—Section 313 of the 5 Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 6 30114) is amended by adding at the end the following new 7 subsection: 8 ‘‘(c) PROHIBITING COMPENSATION OF SPOUSES; 9 DISCLOSURE OF PAYMENTS TO SPOUSES AND FAMILY 10 MEMBERS.— 11 ‘‘(1) PROHIBITING COMPENSATION OF 12 SPOUSES.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 13 this Act, no authorized committee of a candidate or 14 any other political committee established, main- 15 tained, or controlled by a candidate or an individual 16 holding Federal office (other than a political com- 17 mittee of a political party) shall directly or indirectly 18 compensate the spouse of the candidate or individual 19 (as the case may be) for services provided to or on 20 behalf of the committee. 21 ‘‘(2) DISCLOSURE OF PAYMENTS TO SPOUSES 22 AND IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBERS.—In addition to 23 any other information included in a report submitted 24 under section 304 by a committee described in para- 25 graph (1), the committee shall include in the report 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:06 Feb 25, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H856.IH H856 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 856 IH a separate statement of any payments, including di- 1 rect or indirect compensation, made to the spouse or 2 any immediate family member of the candidate or 3 individual involved during the period covered by the 4 report. 5 ‘‘(3) IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER DEFINED.— 6 In this subsection, the term ‘immediate family mem- 7 ber’ means the son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter- 8 in-law, mother, father, brother, sister, brother-in- 9 law, sister-in-law, or grandchild of the candidate or 10 individual involved.’’. 11 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 313(a)(1) 12 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30114(a)(1)) is amended by strik- 13 ing ‘‘for otherwise’’ and inserting ‘‘subject to subsection 14 (c), for otherwise’’. 15 SEC. 3. IMPOSITION OF PENALTY AGAINST CANDIDATE OR 16 OFFICEHOLDER. 17 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 309 of the Federal Elec- 18 tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30109) is amended 19 by adding at the end the following new subsection: 20 ‘‘(e) In the case of a violation of section 313(c) com- 21 mitted by a committee described in such section, if the 22 candidate or individual involved knew of the violation, any 23 penalty imposed under this section shall be imposed on 24 the candidate or individual and not on the committee.’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:06 Feb 25, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H856.IH H856 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 856 IH (b) PROHIBITING REIMBURSEMENT BY COM- 1 MITTEE.—Section 313(c) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 2 30114(c)), as added by section 2(a), is amended— 3 (1) by redesignating paragraph (3) as para- 4 graph (4); and 5 (2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol- 6 lowing new paragraph: 7 ‘‘(3) PROHIBITING REIMBURSEMENT BY COM- 8 MITTEE OF PENALTY PAID BY CANDIDATE FOR VIO- 9 LATIONS.—A committee described in paragraph (1) 10 may not make any payment to reimburse the can- 11 didate or individual involved for any penalty imposed 12 for a violation of this subsection which is required 13 to be paid by the candidate or individual under sec- 14 tion 309(e).’’. 15 SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. 16 The amendments made by this Act shall apply with 17 respect to compensation and payments made on or after 18 the date of enactment of this Act. 19 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:06 Feb 25, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H856.IH H856 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS