I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2522 To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit a candidate for election for Federal office from using amounts contributed to the candidate’s campaign to make payments to vendors owned or controlled by the candidate or by an immediate family member of the candidate. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 6, 2023 Mr. RUIZ 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 a candidate for election for Federal office from using amounts contributed to the candidate’s campaign to make payments to vendors owned or controlled by the candidate or by an immediate family member of the candidate. 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 ‘‘Campaign Spending 4 Integrity Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2522.IH H2522 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 2522 IH SEC. 2. PROHIBITING USE OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS FOR PAY- 1 MENTS TO VENDORS OWNED OR CON- 2 TROLLED BY CANDIDATE OR IMMEDIATE 3 FAMILY MEMBER. 4 (a) PROHIBITION.—Section 313(b) of the Federal 5 Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30114(b)) is 6 amended by adding at the end the following new para- 7 graph: 8 ‘‘(3) TREATMENT OF PAYMENTS TO VENDORS 9 OWNED OR CONTROLLED BY CANDIDATE OR IMME- 10 DIATE FAMILY MEMBER AS CONVERSION.— 11 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of para- 12 graph (1), a contribution to an authorized com- 13 mittee of a candidate shall be considered to be 14 converted to the personal use of the candidate 15 if the contribution is used to make a payment 16 to a vendor which is owned or controlled by the 17 candidate or by an immediate family member of 18 the candidate. 19 ‘‘(B) DETERMINATION OF OWNERSHIP 20 AND CONTROL.—For purposes of subparagraph 21 (A), a vendor shall be considered to be owned 22 or controlled by a candidate or by an immediate 23 family member of the candidate if the candidate 24 or the immediate family member— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2522.IH H2522 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 2522 IH ‘‘(i) is a member of the board of di- 1 rectors or similar governing body of the 2 vendor; 3 ‘‘(ii) directly or indirectly owns or 4 controls more than 50 percent of the vot- 5 ing shares of the vendor; or 6 ‘‘(iii) is the beneficiary of a trust 7 which owns or controls more than 50 per- 8 cent of the voting shares of the vendor 9 and, under the terms of the trust, can di- 10 rect distributions from the trust. 11 ‘‘(C) IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER DE- 12 FINED.—In this paragraph, the term ‘imme- 13 diate family member’ means, with respect to a 14 candidate, any of the following: 15 ‘‘(i) Spouse, and parents thereof. 16 ‘‘(ii) Sons and daughters, and spouses 17 thereof. 18 ‘‘(iii) Parents, and spouses thereof. 19 ‘‘(iv) Brothers and sisters, and 20 spouses thereof. 21 ‘‘(v) Grandparents and grandchildren, 22 and spouses thereof. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2522.IH H2522 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 2522 IH ‘‘(vi) Domestic partner and parents 1 thereof, including domestic partners of any 2 individual in clauses (i) through (v).’’. 3 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 4 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to payments made 5 on or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2522.IH H2522 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB