To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to permit candidates for election for Federal office to designate an individual who will be authorized to disburse funds of the authorized campaign committees of the candidate in the event of the death of the candidate.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 406) to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to permit candidates for election for Federal office to designate an individual who will be authorized to disburse funds of the authorized campaign committees of the candidate in the event of the death of the candidate.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation was introduced by our colleague, Congressman Walter Jones. It simply amends the Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1971 to permit candidates for election for Federal office to designate an individual who would be authorized to disburse campaign funds in the event of the death of the candidate.

Every private citizen who decides to become a candidate for public office is driven by issues that inspire and motivate them to want to serve. Often those issues outlive the individuals who champion their ideals.

This bill will ensure that every Federal candidate will have the opportunity to appoint a trusted individual to distribute campaign funds in the event they die.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 406, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I would yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones), a distinguished member on the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Financial Services.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to make it very, very clear: this does not change the law that the campaign funds would have to be used for a charitable purpose or for a political purpose, that is, to a party or candidate. It doesn't change that at all. It just changes the person who would have the decisionmaking responsibility. And since this is a situation where a Member or someone running for office would die, those funds, in some cases, would probably--the candidate would have wished them to go to a particular charity or series of charities. And this would ensure that those people who know best the candidate and know what his or her desires would be would make that determination.

But it does not in any way change it so that it could be used for personal purposes by the family or anybody else designated. It would still have to go to those legitimate legal purposes for which campaign funds are limited. It would do nothing more than change the person who would make that determination, and we have a real-life experience of that occurring, and that is why I support this very strongly. It has been supported strongly in the House before; and if we can get the attention of our friends on the other side of the Capitol, we can make this happen, and I think it would be a good, good thing.

So with that, I would urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I support this bill to allow a candidate for Federal office to designate someone to disburse his or her unspent campaign funds in the event of the candidate's death. Under this bill, a Federal candidate could designate another person by filing the appropriate form with the FEC and could revoke or change the designation at any time.

The bill allows the candidate to designate a second individual to carry out the duties and wishes of the candidate, within the limits of the law, should the first designee die or become unable to perform these duties. H.R. 406 further allows candidates to provide instructions for distribution of campaign funds as allowed by law.

H.R. 406 is designed to help campaign treasurers facing conflicting State laws in cases where Federal candidates die leaving unspent balances in their campaign treasuries, which happens from time to time. This measure offers a commonsense improvement to the Federal Election Campaign Act to deal with this situation.

The House has passed similar legislation before, and I urge our Members to support it again. I pledge to my friend, Mr. Jones from North Carolina, that I will do whatever I can in my power, and I know my chairman will, too, to make sure the Senate does take this up so we can pass it into law.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Brady. I want to thank you all for bringing this bill back to the floor of the House.

This came to my attention--I would not have had any idea that if a candidate or an incumbent running as a candidate would die in office that their family would not decide how to disburse the money. It would go back to the treasurer of the campaign. And in cases, many times, that is probably what the family would want anyway.

But what I found out with my own father who served here 26 years, and he died in office, was that it does create a problem. If the family has the authority to make the recommendation as to how to disburse the proceeds, it just makes for a very satisfactory time in a very difficult time when a family member dies.

So to Mr. Lungren and Mr. Brady, thank you very much for bringing this bill to the floor of the House again. All this is is a simple change so that the candidate for Federal office can determine that he would like to have or she would like to have a person other than the treasurer to disburse the funds.

If we pass this bill today, I want to ask my friend, Mr. Brady, to help me

with the Senate, and I'll reach out to the Republicans and maybe he can reach out to the Democrats and get this bill through because it is the right thing to do for the family in that tragic situation that can happen to any of us.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 406, a bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to permit candidates for Federal office to designate an individual to disburse the campaign funds of the candidate in the event of the candidate's death, authored by my colleague from North Carolina, Walter Jones.

Unfortunately, he has personally experienced the situation that this legislation is attempting to remedy when his father--a 14 term member of this body--passed away and questions arose as to what to do with remaining campaign funds.

Current law authorizes the campaign treasurer to disperse campaign funds but does not give instruction on how those funds should be spent in the event of a candidate's death.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 406 is a common-sense solution to resolving this potentially complex issue. I was proud to support the legislation when it came before the Committee on House Administration, and I urge all of my colleagues to support it today.