I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5959 
To amend the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 
to require the authorization of members of a labor organization before 
such organization may make certain political expenditures, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 25, 2020 
Mr. HUIZENGA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Education and Labor 
A BILL 
To amend the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure 
Act of 1959 to require the authorization of members 
of a labor organization before such organization may 
make certain political expenditures, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Union Member Protec-
tion Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Labor unions make significant political con-
tributions and expenditures that directly or indi-
rectly influence the election of candidates and sup-
port or oppose political causes. Decisions to use 
union dues for political contributions and expendi-
tures are usually made by union leadership and 
management, rather than union membership. 
(2) Unions, acting through their management, 
should be obligated to conduct business in the best 
interests of their membership. 
(3) Historically, union members have not had a 
way to know, or to influence, the political activities 
of unions that are supposed to represent them. 
Union members and the public have a right to know 
how unions are spending members’ dues to make po-
litical contributions or expenditures benefitting can-
didates, political parties, and political causes. 
(4) Unions should be accountable to their mem-
bership in making political contributions or expendi-
tures affecting Federal governance and public policy. 
Requiring the express approval of a union’s member-
ship for political contributions or expenditures will 
establish necessary accountability. 
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SEC. 3. DISCLOSURE AND APPROVAL OF CERTAIN POLIT-
ICAL EXPENDITURES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title II of the Labor-Management 
Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (29 U.S.C. 431 et 
seq.) is amended by inserting after section 201 the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘SEC. 201A. DISCLOSURE AND APPROVAL OF CERTAIN PO-
LITICAL EXPENDITURES BY LABOR ORGANI-
ZATIONS. 
‘‘(a) DISCLOSURE.—The report required under sec-
tion 201 shall contain, in a clear and simple format— 
‘‘(1) a description of the specific nature of any 
expenditures for political activities proposed to be 
made by the labor organization for the forthcoming 
fiscal year, to the extent the specific nature is known 
to the labor organization and including the total 
amount of such proposed expenditures; and 
‘‘(2) a disclosure of how each officer of the 
labor organization voted to authorize or not to au-
thorize each expenditure for political activities made 
by the labor organization during the preceding fiscal 
year. 
‘‘(b) RESTRICTION ON EXPENDITURES.—No labor 
organization shall make any expenditure for political ac-
tivities in any fiscal year unless— 
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‘‘(1) such expenditure is of the nature of those 
proposed by the labor organization pursuant to sub-
section (a); and 
‘‘(2) the full, free, and written authorization for 
such expenditures has been granted by a majority of 
the members of the labor organization. 
‘‘(c) MECHANISM
FOR
OBTAINING
AUTHORIZA-
TION.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of the Union Member Protection Act, every labor organi-
zation shall adopt a mechanism for obtaining, by secret 
ballot, the authorization of its members as required under 
subsection (b)(2). 
‘‘(d) LIABILITY.—The officers of a labor organization 
who authorize an expenditure without first obtaining the 
authorization of members required under subsection (b)(2) 
shall be jointly and severally liable in any action brought 
in any court of competent jurisdiction to any member of 
the labor organization or class of members for the amount 
of dues paid by such member or class of member during 
the 1-year period prior to the date that such expenditure 
was made. 
‘‘(e) DEFINITION OF EXPENDITURE FOR POLITICAL 
ACTIVITIES.—As used in this section: 
‘‘(1) The term ‘expenditure for political activi-
ties’ means— 
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‘‘(A) an independent expenditure, as such 
term is defined in section 301(17) of the Fed-
eral Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 
431(17)); 
‘‘(B) contributions to any political party, 
committee, or electioneering communication, as 
such term is defined in section 304(f)(3)(A) of 
the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 
U.S.C. 434(f)(3)(A)); and 
‘‘(C) dues or other payments to trade asso-
ciations or other tax exempt organizations that 
are, or could reasonably be anticipated to be, 
used for the purposes described in subpara-
graph (A). 
‘‘(2) Such term shall not include— 
‘‘(A) direct lobbying efforts through reg-
istered lobbyists employed or hired by the labor 
organization; 
‘‘(B) communications by a labor organiza-
tion to its members and executive or adminis-
trative personnel and their families; or 
‘‘(C) the establishment, administration, 
and solicitation of contributions to a separate 
segregated fund to be utilized for political pur-
poses by a labor organization.’’. 
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(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 
(1) Section 201(c) of such Act (29 U.S.C. 
431(c)) is amended by striking ‘‘make available the 
information required to be contained in’’ and insert-
ing ‘‘provide’’. 
(2) Section 209(a) of such Act (29 U.S.C. 
439(a)) is amended by inserting ‘‘other than section 
201A’’ after ‘‘this title’’. 
SEC. 4. REQUIREMENT OF VOTE BY PRINCIPAL OFFICERS. 
Section 201 of the Labor-Management Reporting and 
Disclosure Act of 1959 (29 U.S.C. 431) is further amend-
ed by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(f) The bylaws required under this section shall ex-
pressly provide for a vote of the principal officers of the 
labor organization on any individual expenditure for polit-
ical activities (as such term is defined in section 201A(e)) 
in excess of $50,000. A labor organization shall make pub-
licly available the individual votes of principal officers re-
quired by the preceding sentence within 48 hours of the 
vote, including in a clear and conspicuous location on the 
Internet website of the labor organization.’’. 
SEC. 5. REPORT. 
The Comptroller General of the United States shall 
annually conduct a study on the compliance with the re-
quirements of this Act and the amendments made by this 
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Act by labor organizations and their management. Not 
later than April 1 of each year, the Comptroller General 
shall submit to Congress a report of such study. 
SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall 
take effect on the later of— 
(1) the date of enactment of this Act; and 
(2) the date that the bill H.R. 5929, introduced 
in the House of Representatives during the 116th 
Congress, is enacted into law. 
Æ 
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