WASHINGTON - JUNE 22 - In a letter sent today to House members, reform groups urged Representatives to support H.R. 2630, legislation introduced by Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Michael Castle (R-DE), that would prohibit candidates and federal officeholders from making payments to their spouses from their campaign committees and leadership PACs.

The legislation would also require candidates and federal officeholders to disclose such payments made to other immediate family members of the candidate or officeholder.

The reform groups include the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG.

According to the letter from the reform groups, ''Our organizations strongly believe that members of Congress should not be making payments for services to their spouses or immediate family members from their campaign committee funds or their leadership PACs.''

The letter adds, ''Such payments by a Member's campaign committee or leadership PAC to an immediate family member create the potential for campaign finance and ethics abuses by evasion of the prohibition on Members converting their campaign funds to personal use and the House ethics rule limiting the amount of outside earned income Members can receive.''

The letter continues, ''For example, to the extent that payments by a Member's campaign committee or leadership PAC to a spouse become part of the family income, the Member, in essence, is receiving the direct personal financial benefit of campaign funds, and is also receiving the direct personal financial benefit of income that may exceed the House limit on the amount of outside earned income the Member can receive.''

The letter states, ''Recent published reports indicate that the practice of Members making payments from campaign committees and leadership PACs to immediate family members is widespread in the House.''

According to the letter, ''the legislation should be strengthened by extending the prohibition on payments of campaign funds to spouses to cover immediate family members as well. We see no basis for making a distinction between spouses and immediate family members in these circumstances.''

The letter also notes that under H.R. 2630 ''payments by candidate committees or leadership PACs to business entities would be treated as payments to a spouse or immediate family member if the spouse or immediate family member is an officer or director of the business entity.''

The letter adds, ''We also believe the legislation should be strengthened by providing that a payment to a business entity is considered the same as a payment to a spouse or immediate family member not just if the spouse or family member is an officer or director of the business entity, but also if the spouse or immediate family member has either an ownership interest in the business entity or would directly benefit financially as a result of payments to the entity through fees, commissions or a salary increase.''

The letter concludes, ''The Schiff-Castle bill is important legislation that focuses on an area of demonstrated abuse. We strongly urge you to support H.R. 2630 and to also support strengthening amendments to expand the scope of its prohibition to cover immediate family members and to broaden the definition of a business entity associated with a spouse or immediate family member.''

A copy of the letter is available at www.democracy21.org.

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