I
118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 7210
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide for the
treatment of payments for child care and other personal use services
as an authorized campaign expenditure, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY1, 2024
Ms. P
ORTER(for herself, Ms. WILLIAMSof Georgia, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. MOORE
of Wisconsin, Mrs. W
ATSONCOLEMAN, Ms. SCANLON, and Ms. TOKUDA)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
House Administration
A BILL
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to
provide for the treatment of payments for child care
and other personal use services as an authorized cam-
paign expenditure, and for other purposes.
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; FINDINGS; PURPOSE. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Help America Run Act’’. 5
(b) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 6
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(1) Everyday Americans experience barriers to 1
entry before they can consider running for office to 2
serve their communities. 3
(2) Current law states that campaign funds 4
cannot be spent on everyday expenses that would 5
exist whether or not a candidate were running for 6
office, like rent and food. While the law seems neu-7
tral, its actual effect is to privilege the independently 8
wealthy who want to run, because given the de-9
mands of running for office, candidates who must 10
work to pay for child care or to afford health insur-11
ance are effectively being left out of the process, 12
even if they have sufficient support to mount a via-13
ble campaign. 14
(3) Thus current practice favors those prospec-15
tive candidates who do not need to rely on a regular 16
paycheck to make ends meet. The consequence is 17
that everyday Americans who have firsthand knowl-18
edge of the importance of stable child care, a safety 19
net, or great public schools are less likely to get a 20
seat at the table. This governance by the few is anti-21
thetical to the democratic experiment, but most im-22
portantly, when lawmakers do not share the con-23
cerns of everyday Americans, their policies reflect 24
that. 25
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(4) These circumstances have contributed to a 1
Congress that does not always reflect everyday 2
Americans. The New York Times reported in 2019 3
that fewer than 5 percent of representatives cite 4
blue-collar or service jobs in their biographies. A 5
2015 survey by the Center for Responsive Politics 6
showed that the median net worth of lawmakers was 7
just over $1 million in 2013, or 18 times the wealth 8
of the typical American household. 9
(5) These circumstances have also contributed 10
to a governing body that does not reflect the Nation 11
it serves. For instance, women are 51 percent of the 12
American population. Yet even with a record number 13
of women serving in the One Hundred Eighteenth 14
Congress, the Pew Research Center notes that more 15
than two out of three Members of this Congress are 16
male. The Center for American Women And Politics 17
found that one-third of women legislators surveyed 18
had been actively discouraged from running for of-19
fice, often by political professionals. This type of dis-20
couragement, combined with the burdens of child 21
care that still fall disproportionately on American 22
women, particularly disadvantages working mothers. 23
These barriers may explain why only 12 women in 24
history have given birth while serving in Congress, 25
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in spite of the prevalence of working parents in 1
other professions. Yet working mothers and fathers 2
are best positioned to create policy that reflects the 3
lived experience of most Americans. 4
(6) Working mothers, those caring for their el-5
derly parents, and young professionals who rely on 6
their jobs for health insurance should have the free-7
dom to run to serve the people of the United States. 8
Their networks and net worth are simply not the 9
best indicators of their strength as prospective pub-10
lic servants. In fact, helping ordinary Americans to 11
run may create better policy for all Americans. 12
(c) P
URPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to ensure 13
that all Americans who are otherwise qualified to serve 14
this Nation are able to run for office, regardless of their 15
economic status. By expanding permissible uses of cam-16
paign funds and providing modest assurance that testing 17
a run for office will not cost one’s livelihood, the Help 18
America Run Act will facilitate the candidacy of represent-19
atives who more accurately reflect the experiences, chal-20
lenges, and ideals of everyday Americans. 21
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SEC. 2. TREATMENT OF PAYMENTS FOR CHILD CARE AND 1
OTHER PERSONAL USE SERVICES AS AU-2
THORIZED CAMPAIGN EXPENDITURE. 3
(a) P
ERSONALUSESERVICES ASAUTHORIZEDCAM-4
PAIGNEXPENDITURE.—Section 313 of the Federal Elec-5
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30114) is amended 6
by adding at the end the following new subsection: 7
‘‘(d) T
REATMENT OF PAYMENTS FOR CHILDCARE 8
ANDOTHERPERSONALUSESERVICES ASAUTHORIZED 9
C
AMPAIGNEXPENDITURE.— 10
‘‘(1) A
UTHORIZED EXPENDITURES .—For pur-11
poses of subsection (a), the payment by an author-12
ized committee of a candidate for any of the per-13
sonal use services described in paragraph (3) shall 14
be treated as an authorized expenditure if the serv-15
ices are necessary to enable the participation of the 16
candidate in campaign-connected activities. 17
‘‘(2) L
IMITATIONS.— 18
‘‘(A) L
IMIT ON TOTAL AMOUNT OF PAY -19
MENTS.—The total amount of payments made 20
by an authorized committee of a candidate for 21
personal use services described in paragraph (3) 22
may not exceed the limit which is applicable 23
under any law, rule, or regulation on the 24
amount of payments which may be made by the 25
committee for the salary of the candidate (with-26
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out regard to whether or not the committee 1
makes payments to the candidate for that pur-2
pose). 3
‘‘(B) C
ORRESPONDING REDUCTION IN 4
AMOUNT OF SALARY PAID TO CANDIDATE .—To 5
the extent that an authorized committee of a 6
candidate makes payments for the salary of the 7
candidate, any limit on the amount of such pay-8
ments which is applicable under any law, rule, 9
or regulation shall be reduced by the amount of 10
any payments made to or on behalf of the can-11
didate for personal use services described in 12
paragraph (3), other than personal use services 13
described in subparagraph (D) of such para-14
graph. 15
‘‘(3) P
ERSONAL USE SERVICES DESCRIBED .— 16
The personal use services described in this para-17
graph are as follows: 18
‘‘(A) Child care services. 19
‘‘(B) Elder care services. 20
‘‘(C) Services similar to the services de-21
scribed in subparagraph (A) or subparagraph 22
(B) which are provided on behalf of any de-23
pendent who is a qualifying relative under sec-24
tion 152 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 25
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‘‘(D) Health insurance premiums.’’. 1
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 2
this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment 3
of this Act. 4
Æ
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