A GOP-backed bill would prohibit politicians from putting family members on their campaign payrolls

• Republican Rep. Pat Fallon introduced a bill that would prevent politicians from paying family members for campaign services.
• Nine other Republican lawmakers are behind the Family Integrity to Reform Elections Act.

A new bill aims to prevent politicians from dipping into their campaign funds to pay family members for campaign services.

Introduced by Republican Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas and co-sponsored by nine other GOP lawmakers, the Family Integrity to Reform Elections (FIRE) Act would prohibit any candidate running for federal office from paying immediate family members for campaign services. Campaigns would be required to report any payments made to immediate family members, which include spouses, parents, children, siblings, and their domestic partners.

"Current campaign finance law has allowed for millions of dollars to flow out campaigns and into the bank accounts of a candidate's family member with little proof of what they are actually contributing," Fallon said on Twitter.

—Rep. Pat Fallon (@RepPatFallon) June 13, 2022

Right now, there's no requirement to alert the bipartisan Federal Election Commission or other governmental entity when someone on a campaign's payroll is part of the family. Indeed, according to regulations set forth by the FEC, it is legal for lawmakers to compensate family members as long as they are "providing bona fide services to the campaign" and not being paid "in excess of the fair market value."

In the event the bill is signed into law — unlikely, given its lack of Democratic sponsors in a Democratic-controlled Congress — penalties would be stiff. Any candidate who is found to have violated the act would be penalized with a $100,000 fine per violation or 200 percent of the compensation paid to family members — whatever is greater — or a maximum of two years of imprisonment.

Family members appearing on a congressional campaign payroll has long been a bipartisan phenomenon.

In 2012, 32 members of Congress together paid relatives more than $2 million in campaign funds during the election cycle, USA Today reported. In 2017, The Hill reported that more than a dozen lawmakers paid family members from campaign accounts. And a 2020 analysis by OpenSecrets found that at least 14 members of Congress — nine Democrats and four Republicans — paid more than $15,000 each to family members from their reelection committees.

One of the most notable campaign money scandals in recent years involved family.

Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of California pleaded guilty in 2019 to stealing campaign money from his campaign account and using it for personal purposes. Hunter's wife, Margaret, served as his campaign manager at the time and was also implicated and pleaded guilty to similar charges.

Then-President Donald Trump pardoned Duncan Hunter in late 2020 — before he served prison time. Margaret Hunter was slated to serve a home confinement sentence — until Trump also pardoned her shortly after.

Fallon, a freshman lawmaker, is no stranger to financial ethics scandals, albeit of a different sort: The House Committee on Ethics is investigating him for allegedly violating the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 after failing to properly disclose dozens of personal stock trades worth into the millions of dollars.