OMAR Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 6659 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 any vendor owned or con- trolled by an immediate family member of the candidate. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 1, 2020 Mr. STEUBE 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 any vendor owned or controlled 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 ‘‘Obstructing Monetary 4 Allocations to Relatives Act’’ or the ‘‘OMAR Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 May 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6659.IH H6659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 6659 IH SEC. 2. PROHIBITING USE OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS FOR PAY- 1 MENTS TO VENDORS OWNED OR CON- 2 TROLLED BY IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER 3 OF CANDIDATE. 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 IMMEDIATE FAMILY 10 MEMBER OF CANDIDATE 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 an 17 immediate family member of the candidate. 18 ‘‘(B) DETERMINATION OF OWNERSHIP 19 AND CONTROL.—For purposes of subparagraph 20 (A), a vendor shall be considered to be owned 21 or controlled by an immediate family member of 22 the candidate if the immediate family mem- 23 ber— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 May 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6659.IH H6659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 6659 IH ‘‘(i) is a member of the board of di- 1 rectors or similar governing body of the 2 vendor; or 3 ‘‘(ii) directly or indirectly owns or 4 controls 51 percent or more of the voting 5 shares of the vendor. 6 ‘‘(C) IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER DE- 7 FINED.—In this paragraph, the term ‘imme- 8 diate family member’ means, with respect to a 9 candidate, a father, mother, son, daughter, 10 brother, sister, husband, wife, father-in-law, or 11 mother-in-law.’’. 12 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 13 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to payments made 14 on or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 May 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H6659.IH H6659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS