I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 507
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit former Members and
elected officers of Congress from lobbying Congress at any time after
leaving office, to prohibit the use of funds for official travel expenses
of Members of Congress and legislative branch employees for airline
accommodations other than coach class, to reduce the pay of Members
of the House of Representatives if a Speaker is not elected on the
first day of a Congress, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY25, 2023
Ms. C
RAIGintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on House Administration, and in addition to the Committees on the Judi-
ciary, Ethics, Rules, and Oversight and Accountability, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned
A BILL
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit former
Members and elected officers of Congress from lobbying
Congress at any time after leaving office, to prohibit
the use of funds for official travel expenses of Members
of Congress and legislative branch employees for airline
accommodations other than coach class, to reduce the
pay of Members of the House of Representatives if a
Speaker is not elected on the first day of a Congress,
and for other purposes.
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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 ‘‘Halt Unchecked Mem-4
ber Benefits with Lobbying Elimination Act’’ or the 5
‘‘HUMBLE Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. PROHIBITING FORMER MEMBERS AND OFFICERS 7
OF CONGRESS FROM LOBBYING CONGRESS. 8
(a) P
ROHIBITION.—Section 207(e)(1) of title 18, 9
United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 10
‘‘(1) M
EMBERS AND ELECTED OFFICERS OF 11
CONGRESS.—Any person who is a Senator, a Mem-12
ber of the House of Representatives, or an elected 13
officer of the Senate or the House of Representa-14
tives and who, after that person leaves office, know-15
ingly makes, with the intent to influence, any com-16
munication to or appearance before any Member, of-17
ficer, or employee of either House of Congress or 18
any employee of any other legislative office of the 19
Congress, on behalf of any other person (except the 20
United States) in connection with any matter on 21
which such former Senator, Member, or elected offi-22
cial seeks action by a Member, officer, or employee 23
of either House of Congress, in his or her official ca-24
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pacity, shall be punished as provided in section 216 1
of this title.’’. 2
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.—Section 207(e)(2) 3
of such title is amended— 4
(1) in the heading, by striking ‘‘O
FFICERS AND 5
STAFF’’ and inserting ‘‘STAFF’’; 6
(2) by striking ‘‘an elected officer of the Senate, 7
or’’; 8
(3) by striking ‘‘leaves office or employment’’ 9
and inserting ‘‘leaves employment’’; and 10
(4) by striking ‘‘former elected officer or’’. 11
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 12
this section shall apply with respect to an individual who 13
leaves office on or after the date of the enactment of this 14
Act. 15
SEC. 3. PROHIBITING USE OF FUNDS FOR OFFICIAL TRAV-16
EL EXPENSES OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS 17
AND LEGISLATIVE BRANCH EMPLOYEES FOR 18
AIRLINE ACCOMMODATIONS OTHER THAN 19
COACH CLASS. 20
(a) P
ROHIBITION.—Except as provided in subsection 21
(b), no funds appropriated or otherwise made available for 22
the official travel expenses of a Member of Congress or 23
other officer or employee of any office in the legislative 24
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branch may be used for airline accommodations which are 1
not coach-class accommodations. 2
(b) E
XCEPTIONS.—Funds described in subsection (a) 3
may be used for airline accommodations which are not 4
coach-class accommodations for an individual described in 5
subsection (a) if the use of the funds for such accommoda-6
tions would be permitted under sections 301–10.121 7
through 301–10.125 of title 41 of the Code of Federal 8
Regulations if the individual were an employee of an agen-9
cy which is subject to chapter 301 of such title. 10
(c) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 11
may be construed to affect any officer or employee of an 12
office of the legislative branch which, as of the date of 13
the enactment of this Act, is subject to chapter 301 of 14
title 41 of the Code of Federal Regulations. 15
(d) D
EFINITIONS.— 16
(1) C
OACH-CLASS ACCOMMODATIONS .—In this 17
Act, the term ‘‘coach-class accommodations’’ means 18
the basic class of accommodation by airlines that is 19
normally the lowest fare offered regardless of airline 20
terminology used, and (as referred to by airlines) 21
may include tourist class or economy class, as well 22
as single class when the airline offers only one class 23
of accommodations to all travelers. 24
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(2) MEMBER OF CONGRESS .—In this Act, the 1
term ‘‘Member of Congress’’ means a Senator or a 2
Representative in, or Delegate or Resident Commis-3
sioner to, the Congress. 4
(e) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This section shall apply with 5
respect to fiscal year 2024 and each succeeding fiscal year. 6
SEC. 4. BENEFITS AND SERVICES PROVIDED TO FORMER 7
MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTA-8
TIVES. 9
(a) B
ENEFITS AND SERVICESDESCRIBED.—The 10
House of Representatives may not make any of the fol-11
lowing benefits and services available to an individual who 12
becomes a former Member of the House (except to the 13
extent such benefits and services are made available to 14
members of the public): 15
(1) Access to the Hall of the House. 16
(2) Access to athletic facilities and other facili-17
ties available for the use of Members of the House. 18
(3) Access to the Members’ Dining Room lo-19
cated in the House of Representatives wing of the 20
United States Capitol. 21
(4) Access to parking spaces. 22
(5) Access to material from the House docu-23
ment room. 24
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(6) Use of the collections in the House Legisla-1
tive Resource Center without borrowing privileges. 2
(b) W
AIVERAUTHORITY.— 3
(1) A
UTHORITY TO WAIVE ELIMINATION OF 4
BENEFIT OR SERVICE.—The Speaker and the minor-5
ity leader of the House of Representatives may joint-6
ly, on a case-by-case basis, grant a waiver of sub-7
section (a) with respect to a former Member of the 8
House and a benefit or service described in such 9
subsection. 10
(2) P
UBLICATION IN CONGRESSIONAL 11
RECORD.—If the Speaker and the minority leader 12
jointly grant a waiver under paragraph (1) to make 13
a benefit or service available to a former Member, 14
the Speaker and minority leader shall, not later than 15
24 hours after the waiver is granted, cause to have 16
published in the Congressional Record a statement 17
identifying the former Member and the benefit or 18
service involved. 19
SEC. 5. PROHIBITING MEMBERS OF HOUSE OF REPRESENT-20
ATIVES FROM OWNING INDIVIDUAL STOCKS. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Rule XXIII of the Rules of the 22
House of Representatives is amended— 23
(1) by redesignating clause 22 as clause 23; 24
and 25
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(2) by inserting after clause 21 the following: 1
‘‘22. A Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner 2
may not own the common stock of any individual corpora-3
tion.’’. 4
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 5
subsection (a) shall take effect immediately before noon 6
on January 3, 2025. 7
SEC. 6. REDUCTION OF PAY OF MEMBERS OF HOUSE IF 8
SPEAKER IS NOT ELECTED. 9
(a) R
EDUCTION OFPAY.— 10
(1) R
EDUCTION.—If, by the end of the first day 11
of a Congress, the House of Representatives has not 12
elected a Speaker, the annual rate of pay applicable 13
under section 601(a) of the Legislative Reorganiza-14
tion Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 4501) with respect to 15
each Member of the House of Representatives for 16
the year shall be reduced by an amount equal to the 17
product of— 18
(A) an amount equal to one day’s worth of 19
pay under such annual rate; and 20
(B) the number of 24-hour periods occur-21
ring during the Congress during which no 22
Speaker has been elected for the Congress. 23
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(2) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This subsection shall 1
apply with respect to the One Hundred Nineteenth 2
Congress and each succeeding Congress. 3
(b) R
ULE FORONEHUNDREDEIGHTEENTHCON-4
GRESS.— 5
(1) H
OLDING SALARIES IN ESCROW .—If, by the 6
end of the first day of the One Hundred Eighteenth 7
Congress, the House of Representatives has not 8
elected a Speaker, the Chief Administrative Officer 9
of the House of Representatives, or an employee of 10
the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer who is 11
designated by the Chief Administrative Officer to 12
carry out this Act, shall— 13
(A) deposit in an escrow account and ex-14
clude from the payments otherwise required to 15
be made for the compensation of each Member 16
of the House of Representatives with respect to 17
a pay period during which the House has not 18
elected a Speaker an amount equal to the prod-19
uct of— 20
(i) the daily rate of pay of the Mem-21
ber under section 601(a) of the Legislative 22
Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 23
4501); and 24
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(ii) the number of 24-hour periods 1
during which no Speaker has been elected 2
for the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress; 3
and 4
(B) release amounts deposited in an es-5
crow account under subparagraph (A) to such 6
Member of the House of Representatives only 7
upon the expiration of the period described in 8
paragraph (2). 9
(2) P
ERIOD DESCRIBED.—The period described 10
in this paragraph is the period that— 11
(A) begins on the first day of the One 12
Hundred Eighteenth Congress; and 13
(B) ends on the earlier of— 14
(i) the date on which the House elects 15
a Speaker for the One Hundred Eight-16
eenth Congress; or 17
(ii) the last day of the One Hundred 18
Eighteenth Congress. 19
(3) W
ITHHOLDING AND REMITTANCE OF 20
AMOUNTS FROM PAYMENTS HELD IN ESCROW .—The 21
Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Rep-22
resentatives, or an employee of the Office of the 23
Chief Administrative Officer who is designated by 24
the Chief Administrative Officer to carry out this 25
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Act, shall provide for the same withholding and re-1
mittance with respect to a payment deposited in an 2
escrow account under paragraph (1) that would 3
apply to the payment if the payment were not sub-4
ject to paragraph (1). 5
(4) R
ELEASE OF AMOUNTS AT END OF THE 6
CONGRESS.—In order to ensure that this subsection 7
is carried out in a manner that shall not vary the 8
compensation of Representatives in violation of the 9
Twenty-seventh Amendment to the Constitution of 10
the United States, the Chief Administrative Officer 11
of the House of Representatives, or an employee of 12
the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer who is 13
designated by the Chief Administrative Officer to 14
carry out this Act, shall release for payment to 15
Members of the House of Representatives any 16
amounts remaining in any escrow account under this 17
section on the last day of the One Hundred Eight-18
eenth Congress. 19
(c) M
EMBERDEFINED.—In this section, the term 20
‘‘Member of the House of Representatives’’ means an indi-21
vidual serving in a position in the House of Representa-22
tives which is covered under subparagraph (A), (B), or 23
(C) of section 601(a)(1) of the Legislative Reorganization 24
Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 4501(1)). 25
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SEC. 7. PROHIBITING MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REP-1
RESENTATIVES FROM SERVING ON BOARDS 2
OF FOR-PROFIT ENTITIES. 3
Rule XXIII of the Rules of the House of Representa-4
tives, as amended by section 5(a), is amended— 5
(1) by redesignating clauses 19 through 23 as 6
clauses 20 through 24, respectively; and 7
(2) by inserting after clause 18 the following 8
new clause: 9
‘‘19. A Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner 10
may not serve on the board of directors of any for-profit 11
entity.’’. 12
Æ
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