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Rules of The House of Representatives of The United States

RULE XXIV: LIMITATIONS ON USE OF OFFICIAL FUNDS

Limitations on use of official and unofficial accounts
1. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b), 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.

(b)(1) Except as provided in subparagraph (2), a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner may defray official expenses with funds of his principal campaign committee under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 431 et seq.).

(2) The funds specified in subparagraph (1) may not be used to defray official expenses for mail or other communications, compensation for services, office space, furniture, or equipment, and any associated information technology services (excluding handheld communications devices).

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.

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 90 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 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.

Prohibition on use of funds by Members not elected to succeeding Congress
10. Funds from the applicable accounts described in clause 1(j)(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.

Rule I