Members of Congress pay relatives with campaign cash, report says

Members pay relatives with campaign cash, report says


18 Jun 2007 // A report released Monday by an ethics watchdog
group highlighted the nexus of members of Congress and their relatives through campaign funds and lobbying.

Titled Family Affair, the 151-page report outlines what House committee and subcommittee chairmen and -women all 337 of them have done for
family members over the past three election cycles.

It shows that many more members of Congress are paying their family members
than people realized. Now we have learned that this happens all the time, said Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and
Ethics in Washington (CREW), which released the report.

The document names 41 Democrats and 55 Republicans from 33 different states.
Among the findings, CREW learned that 64 lawmakers paid relatives through
their campaign committees or political action committees (PACs); 24 have
relatives who lobby Congress; 19 used campaign or PAC money to pay a
business where a family member is employed; and 17 used campaign funds to
contribute to relatives’ campaigns.

Though many of the payments are legal, CREW hopes the report will trigger
action to modify the Federal Election Commission Act as well as changes
to and stronger enforcement of existing House rules.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced legislation roughly two weeks ago
that would prohibit PAC and campaign money being paid to candidates’
and members’ spouses, except to reimburse travel costs, while disclosing any payments to
immediate family members. Prominent Democratic leaders, such as
Reps. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), have cosponsored the bill.

I hope it is going to lead to stronger enforcement ... we want to shine
the light on these practices so constituents can see for themselves.
It seems to me all the facts should be out, said Sloan.

Another bill, authored by Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), would disclose
associations between lawmakers and their leadership PACs, which are
often obscured to the public.


Source URL:
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/29110


Published on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (http://www.citizensforethics.org) By Kevin Bogardus, The Hill, June 18, 2007

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