Grandfather Clause

In the parlance of politics and elections, the term grandfather clause has two principal meanings—one dealing with voting rights, and the other with campaign funds.

The older use of the term refers to the laws passed in seven southern states after the Civil War that exempted [Page p197]illiterate whites from the literacy tests for voters. They were “grandfathered” because in most cases their ancestors had voted before 1867. Few blacks could meet that test because they were descendants of slaves who had not been eligible to vote.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1915 that these grandfather clauses violated the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibited denial of the right to vote on account of race. (See Voting Rights Act.)

The modern grandfather clause concerned a loophole in the 1979 campaign finance law that permitted House members to pocket leftover campaign funds. The law barred personal use of excess campaign funds except by grandfathered members—those who were in office on January 8, 1980. Under House rules they could make personal use of the money after leaving Congress. The funds became taxable as income, but once the members disclosed the conversion of the money to personal use their reporting obligations ended. Senate rules prohibited personal use of excess campaign money by members past or present.

Congress closed the grandfather clause loophole with a provision in a 1989 ethics and pay law. House members were forced to leave Congress before the beginning of the 103d Congress in 1993 or lose the right to take the money. At the beginning of the 101st Congress in 1989, 191 House members were eligible to take advantage of the so-called grandfather clause.

Between 1980 and the beginning of 1989, grandfathered members converted to personal use at least $862,000, including more than $710,000 in cash. Another $115,000 was borrowed or used to retire personal loans unconnected with their former campaigns. At least $37,000 went for cars, furniture, travel, and other services.

Exempt retirees who had left Congress since 1980 had access to more than $2 million in surplus campaign money. Most of it, $1.5 million, was controlled by members whose service ended with the 100th Congress (1987–1989).