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F. Gifts of Personal Hospitality
You may stay in someone’s home or personally-owned facility, or eat a meal at someone’s home, as long as the person who offers the personal hospitality is not a registered federal lobbyist or foreign agent.[50] You may not accept the offer of personal hospitality if the purpose is business-related or the property is used for a business purpose, such as being rented out to others.[51]
[50] House Rule 25, cl. 5(a)(3)(P) (incorporating 5 U.S.C. app. § 109(14)). If the individual providing the gift is reimbursed by a business or seeks a business expense deduction for the hospitality, that hospitality is a business expense and not personal hospitality. Bipartisan Task Force Report, 135 CONG. REC. 30743. Similarly, any property or facilities owned by a corporation or a firm, even if the individual providing the gift is the sole owner of the corporation or firm, are not personally owned by the individual and may not be used for personal hospitality.
[51] Id.; 5 U.S.C. app. § 109(14) (“[H]ospitality extended for a non-business purpose by an individual, not a corporation or organization, at the personal residence of that individual or his family or on property or facilities owned by that individual or his family.”). See, e.g., Comm. on Ethics, In the Matter of Allegations Relating to Representative Don Young, H.R. Rep. No. 113-487, at 38, 57, 61 (2014) (discussing various trips taken by Representative Young that did and did not meet the exception for personal hospitality).
This exception only applies to lodging and meals in the home or personally- owned facility. The exception does not apply to meals at restaurants while visiting someone, nor to someone paying for your hotel room while visiting. Those gifts may be allowed under separate exceptions.
Example (Permissible). You are going to visit your college roommate, who offers to let you stay in their apartment. Your college roommate personally rents the apartment and is not a registered federal lobbyist or foreign agent. You may accept your college roommate’s offer to stay in their apartment, and you may accept any meals your college roommate may make for you in their apartment.
Example (Impermissible). Your friend owns a beach house and offers to let you and your family stay there for a week. Your friend rents out the beach house on a weekly basis. Because the beach house is used for a business purpose, you may not accept your friend’s offer as personal hospitality. See Gifts Based on Personal Friendship for an exception that may apply.
Example (Impermissible). You were invited to an “off-the-record” dinner at a local philanthropist’s home. The dinner’s purpose is to discuss policy initiatives on which the philanthropist works. Even if the philanthropist is not a registered federal lobbyist or foreign agent, you may not accept the meal as personal hospitality because the dinner has a business purpose. See Free Attendance at Events for other ways you may be able to accept the offer.
Example (Permissible in Part). You recently met someone at a party locally with whom you spent most of your time sharing your love of skiing. Your new acquaintance invited you to spend the weekend at their condominium in Colorado to go skiing. Your new acquaintance also offered to pay for your lift tickets and take you out to some local restaurants. Your new acquaintance is not a registered federal lobbyist or foreign agent and personally owns the condominium. Your new acquaintance does not rent out the condominium. You may accept the lodging in the condominium over the weekend, but you may not accept the lift tickets or the meals at the local restaurants as personal hospitality.
Example (Permissible). A constituent knows that you like to duck hunt. The constituent personally owns a piece of property with a lake where the constituent often goes to duck hunt and allows his friends to duck hunt as well. The constituent does not charge others to hunt on his property. The constituent is not a registered federal lobbyist or foreign agent. The constituent offers to bring you along the next time he goes hunting. You may accept the constituent’s offer.
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