[106th Congress House Rules Manual -- House Document No. 106-320]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office Online Database]
[DOCID:hrulest-81]
[Page 867-871]
Rule XXIV
limitations on use of official funds
Limitations on use of official and unofficial accounts
1. <> A Member, Delegate, or
Resident Commissioner may not maintain, or have maintained for his use,
an unofficial office account. Funds may not be paid into an unofficial
office account.
[[Page 868]]
2. Notwithstanding any other provision of this rule, if an amount from
the Official Expenses Allowance of a Member, Delegate, or Resident
Commissioner is paid into the House Recording Studio revolving fund for
telecommunications satellite services, the Member, Delegate, or Resident
Commissioner may accept reimbursement from nonpolitical entities in that
amount for transmission to the Clerk for credit to the Official Expenses
Allowance.
3. In this rule the term ``unofficial office account'' means an
account or repository in which funds are received for the purpose of
defraying otherwise unreimbursed expenses allowable under section 162(a)
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as ordinary and necessary in the
operation of a congressional office, and includes a newsletter fund
referred to in section 527(g) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
This provision (former rule XLV) was adopted in the 95th Congress (H.
Res. 287, Mar. 2, 1977, pp. 5933-53). It was amended in the 102d
Congress to permit Members to receive reimbursements to their expense
allowances for recording studio charges attributable to nonpolitical
organizations receiving the transmissions (H. Res. 5, Jan. 3, 1991, p.
39). When the House recodified its rules in the 106th Congress, it
consolidated former rules XLV and XLVI under clauses 1 through 9 of rule
XXV and the second sentence of former clause 8 of rule I and former
clauses 2(n)(5) and 5(e) of rule XI under clause 10 of rule XXV (H. Res.
5, Jan. 6, 1999, p. ----). This rule was redesignated as rule XXIV in
the 107th Congress (sec. 2(s), H. Res. 5, Jan. 3, 2001, p. ----).
For an in-depth discussion of this rule prepared by the Committee on
Standards of Official Conduct, see the House Ethics Manual (102d Cong.,
2d Sess.).
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Limitations on use of the frank
4. <> A Member, Delegate,
or Resident Commissioner shall mail franked mail under section 3210(d)
of title 39, United States Code at the most economical rate of postage
practicable.
5. Before making a mass mailing, a Member, Delegate, or Resident
Commissioner shall submit a sample or description of the mail matter
involved to the House Commission on Congressional Mailing Standards for
an advisory opinion as to whether the proposed mailing is in compliance
with applicable provisions of law, rule, or regulation.
6. A mass mailing that is otherwise frankable by a Member, Delegate,
or Resident Commissioner under the provisions of section 3210(e) of
title 39, United States Code, is not frankable unless the cost of
preparing and printing it is defrayed exclusively from funds made
available in an appropriation Act.
7. A Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner may not send a mass
mailing outside the congressional district from which he was elected.
8. In the case of a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner, a mass
mailing is not frankable under section 3210 of title 39, United States
Code, when it is postmarked less than 60 days before the date of a
primary or general election (whether regular, special, or runoff) in
which he is a candidate for public office. If the mail matter is of a
type that is not customarily postmarked, the date on which it would have
[[Page 870]]
been postmarked, if it were of a type customarily postmarked, applies.
9. In this rule the term ``mass mailing'' means, with respect to a
session of Congress, a mailing of newsletters or other pieces of mail
with substantially identical content (whether such pieces of mail are
deposited singly or in bulk, or at the same time or different times),
totaling more than 500 pieces of mail in that session, except that such
term does not include a mailing--
(a) of matter in direct response to a communication from a person
to whom the matter is mailed;
(b) from a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner to other
Members, Delegates, the Resident Commissioner, or Senators, or to
Federal, State, or local government officials; or
(c) of a news release to the communications media.
This provision (former rule XLVI) was adopted in the 95th Congress (H.
Res. 287, Mar. 2, 1977, pp. 5933-53). In the 102d Congress it was
extensively amended to conform to restrictions on franking and mass
mailings included in the legislative branch appropriations acts for
fiscal years 1990 and 1991 (P.L. 101-163 and 101-520, respectively) (H.
Res. 5, Jan. 3, 1991, p. 39). Clause 7 (former clause 4) was rewritten
in the 103d Congress to conform to the statutory prohibition against
mass mailings outside the congressional district from which a Member was
elected. Before the House recodified its rules in the 106th Congress,
this provision was found in former rule XLVI (H. Res. 5, Jan. 6, 1999,
p. ----).
For an in-depth discussion of this rule prepared by the Committee on
Standards of Official Conduct, see the House Ethics Manual (102d Cong.,
2d Sess.).
[[Page 871]]
Prohibition on use of funds by Members not elected to succeeding
Congress
10. <> Funds from the
applicable accounts described in clause 1(i)(1) of rule X, including
funds from committee expense resolutions, and funds in any local
currencies owned by the United States may not be made available for
travel by a Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, or Senator after
the date of a general election in which he was not elected to the
succeeding Congress or, in the case of a Member, Delegate, or Resident
Commissioner who is not a candidate in a general election, after the
earlier of the date of such general election or the adjournment sine die
of the last regular session of the Congress.
This provision was added in the 95th Congress (H. Res. 287, Mar. 2,
1977, p. 5941). In the 105th and 106th Congresses this clause was
amended to update archaic references to the ``contingent fund'' (H. Res.
5, Jan. 7, 1997, p. ----; H. Res. 5, Jan. 6, 1999, p. ----). When the
House recodified its rules in the 106th Congress, it consolidated the
second sentence of former clause 8 of rule I and former clauses 2(n)(5)
and 5(e) of rule XI under clause 10 of former rule XXV (redesignated as
rule XXIV in the 107th Congress) (H. Res. 5, Jan. 6, 1999, p. ----).