FIRE Act

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 153 To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit certain political committees from compensating an immediate family member of the candidate for services provided to or on behalf of the committee, to require such committees to report on payments made to immediate family members of the candidate, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 9, 2023 Mr. FALLON (for himself and Mr. JACKSON of Texas) 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 an immediate family member of the candidate for serv- ices provided to or on behalf of the committee, to require such committees to report on payments made to 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 ‘‘Family Integrity to 4 Reform Elections Act’’ or the ‘‘FIRE Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Jan 18, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H153.IH H153 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 153 IH SEC. 2. PROHIBITING USE OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS TO COM- 1 PENSATE IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBERS OF 2 CANDIDATES; DISCLOSURE OF PAYMENTS 3 MADE TO IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBERS. 4 (a) PROHIBITION; DISCLOSURE.—Section 313 of the 5 Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 6 30114) is amended by adding at the end the following new 7 subsection: 8 ‘‘(d) PROHIBITING COMPENSATION OF IMMEDIATE 9 FAMILY MEMBERS; DISCLOSURE OF PAYMENTS TO IMME- 10 DIATE FAMILY MEMBERS.— 11 ‘‘(1) PROHIBITING COMPENSATION OF IMME- 12 DIATE FAMILY MEMBERS.—Notwithstanding any 13 other provision of this Act, no authorized committee 14 of a candidate or any other political committee es- 15 tablished, maintained, or controlled by a candidate 16 or an individual holding Federal office (other than 17 a political committee of a political party) shall di- 18 rectly or indirectly compensate an immediate family 19 member of the candidate or individual (as the case 20 may be) for services provided to or on behalf of the 21 committee. 22 ‘‘(2) DISCLOSURE OF PAYMENTS TO IMMEDIATE 23 FAMILY MEMBERS.—In addition to any other infor- 24 mation included in a report submitted under section 25 304 by a committee described in paragraph (1), the 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Jan 18, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H153.IH H153 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 153 IH committee shall include in the report a separate 1 statement of any payments, including direct or indi- 2 rect compensation, made to any immediate family 3 member of the candidate or individual involved dur- 4 ing the period covered by the report. 5 ‘‘(3) IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER DEFINED.— 6 In this subsection, the term ‘immediate family mem- 7 ber’ means, with respect to a candidate or indi- 8 vidual, any of the following: 9 ‘‘(A) Spouse, and parents thereof. 10 ‘‘(B) Sons and daughters, and spouses 11 thereof. 12 ‘‘(C) Parents, and spouses thereof. 13 ‘‘(D) Brothers and sisters, and spouses 14 thereof. 15 ‘‘(E) Grandparents and grandchildren, and 16 spouses thereof. 17 ‘‘(F) Domestic partner and parents there- 18 of, including domestic partners of any indi- 19 vidual in subparagraphs (A) through (E).’’. 20 (b) ENFORCEMENT.—Section 309(d)(1) of the Fed- 21 eral Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 22 30109(d)(1)) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 23 lowing new subparagraph: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Jan 18, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H153.IH H153 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 153 IH ‘‘(E) Any person who knowingly and willfully com- 1 mits a violation of section 313(d) shall be fined not more 2 than the greater of 200 percent of the amount of the com- 3 pensation paid in violation of such section or $100,000 4 for each violation of such section, imprisoned for not more 5 than 2 years, or both.’’. 6 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 313(a)(1) 7 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30114(a)(1)) is amended by strik- 8 ing ‘‘for otherwise’’ and inserting ‘‘subject to subsection 9 (d), for otherwise’’. 10 SEC. 3. IMPOSITION OF PENALTY AGAINST CANDIDATE OR 11 OFFICEHOLDER. 12 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 309 of the Federal Elec- 13 tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30109) is amended 14 by adding at the end the following new subsection: 15 ‘‘(e) In the case of a violation of section 313(d) com- 16 mitted by a committee described in such section, if the 17 candidate or individual involved knew of the violation, any 18 penalty imposed under this section shall be imposed on 19 the candidate or individual and not on the committee.’’. 20 (b) PROHIBITING REIMBURSEMENT BY COM- 21 MITTEE.—Section 313(d) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 22 30114(d)), as added by section 2(a), is amended— 23 (1) by redesignating paragraph (3) as para- 24 graph (4); and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Jan 18, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H153.IH H153 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 153 IH (2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol- 1 lowing new paragraph: 2 ‘‘(3) PROHIBITING REIMBURSEMENT BY COM- 3 MITTEE OF PENALTY PAID BY CANDIDATE FOR VIO- 4 LATIONS.—A committee described in paragraph (1) 5 may not make any payment to reimburse the can- 6 didate or individual involved for any penalty imposed 7 for a violation of this subsection which is required 8 to be paid by the candidate or individual under sec- 9 tion 309(e).’’. 10 SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. 11 The amendments made by this Act shall apply with 12 respect to compensation and payments made on or after 13 the date of enactment of this Act. 14 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Jan 18, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H153.IH H153 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB