A sitting senator may soon be asked to vote on a provision in a must-pass funding bill that would provide a direct financial benefit to her own family.
After Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) died on July 11, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster appointed Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to temporarily fill his Senate seat through the end of the current term in January 2027. Congress is now considering legislation that includes a $174,000 “death gratuity” payment to Graham’s heir.
Because Graham never married or had children and his parents predeceased him, South Carolina’s inheritance rules make his sister the presumptive heir. If the provision remains in the bill, Senator Nordone could be in the position of voting on a measure that would directly benefit her.
The episode underscores a broader problem: Congress still bestows “death gratuity” payments of a year’s salary to the heirs of members who die in office, an outdated tradition that persists despite modern federal retirement and survivor benefit systems. Since 2000, Congress has provided over $8 million in payments.
Background: An Antiquated Congressional Perk
Death gratuity payments are lump-sum benefits provided to the families or heirs of members of Congress who die while in office. The amount is based on the member’s annual salary, currently $174,000, which has remained frozen at that level for several years for rank-and-file members. (That salary level is also the subject of a lawsuit by some current and former members suing for backpay.)
Although often described as “customary,” the payments are not required by any statute, and are provided as a tradition via appropriations legislation. They were originally intended to provide immediate financial assistance to surviving spouses or dependents at a time when no congressional retirement system existed. The earliest recorded example found by NTUF dates to 1880, when Congress approved a $6,000 payment to the widow of Representative Alfred Lay of Missouri.
In the modern era, that rationale has largely disappeared. Since 1946, members of Congress are covered by federal retirement benefits and by Social Security since 1984. Families may also receive survivor annuities and death benefits, making the gratuity superfluous and unnecessary on top of existing support systems.
Another $348,000 in the Continuing Resolution
Section 127 of the House-passed Continuing Appropriations Act, 2027 (H.R. 9770) includes two death gratuity payments:
- $174,000 to Alfredia Scott, widow of the late Representative David Scott
- $174,000 to the heirs at law of the late Senator Lindsey Graham.
The House approved the continuing resolution on July 21 by a vote of 220 to 205. The measure would extend federal funding through December 4, 2026, but still requires Senate consideration.
Under Rule XII, Paragraph 3 of the Standing Rules of the United States Senate, a senator is permitted to decline to vote on any matter, however recusal is not mandated:
A Member, notwithstanding any other provisions of this rule, may decline to vote, in committee or on the floor, on any matter when he believes that his voting on such a matter would be a conflict of interest.
Congress Has Faced This Situation Before
This is not the first time a member of Congress has been in a position to vote on a death gratuity benefiting a family member whose seat they later held. NTUF reviewed cases of widow successions since the 1970s to determine how they handled such votes. In two House examples, the new members did not cast votes on the legislation providing the gratuity, though the Senate record is less clear.
In 1998, Representative Sonny Bono (R-CA) died in office. His widow, Mary Bono, subsequently won a special election to succeed him. When the House considered legislation providing a payment equal to his salary, she voted “present.”
A similar situation occurred in 2005 following the death of Representative Robert Matsui (D-CA). His widow, Doris Matsui, won a special election to fill his seat and later voted “present” on a conference report that included a $162,100 death gratuity.
The Senate has also considered such payments, though without recorded roll-call votes. After the 1992 death of Senator Quentin Burdick (D-ND), his widow, Jocelyn Burdick, was appointed to his seat and Congress later approved a gratuity by voice vote. Muriel Humphrey was serving in the Senate when a similar payment was approved by voice vote following the 1978 death of her husband, Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-MN).
More Than $1 Million in New Payments
This would be the third round of congressional death gratuities since NTUF’s last update on the issue.
The Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, provided a combined $522,000 to the families of three members who died in 2024: Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), William Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ), and Donald Payne Jr. (D-NJ).
Congress later approved another $522,000 for the families of Representatives Sylvester Turner (D-TX), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), and Gerald Connolly (D-VA), all of whom died in 2025.
Following the death of Representative Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) in January 2026, Congress provided a $174,000 payment to his widow, Jill Marie LaMalfa, through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026.
The proposed payments to the Scott and Graham families would add another $348,000. In total, the six deaths since NTUF’s last update have resulted in enacted or proposed payments exceeding $1 million. If the current continuing resolution becomes law with both new payments intact, total congressional death gratuity payments since 2000 will surpass $8 million.
Reforming an Obsolete Benefit
As noted above, the perk is outmoded given modern retirement and survivor benefits. Moreover, the benefit is not means-tested, and it is provided to members of Congress who, on average, are far wealthier than the median American household, with many entering office with significant personal assets and income. This further weakens any claim that the payment is necessary as a form of financial protection for surviving families.
For example, Rep. LaMalfa was reported to have a net worth of about $3.5 million, Sen. Graham about $1.4 million, and Rep. David Scott from $1 million to $3 million.
In the past, members of both parties have introduced legislation to end this tradition. Former Representative Bill Posey (R-FL) last introduced H.R. 412 in 2021 to eliminate congressional death gratuity payments entirely. The bill would not have affected other federal survivor benefits available to members’ families, but it would have ended the one-time, taxpayer-funded payments made to lawmakers’ heirs. In 2015, former Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) introduced the To Prohibit the Payment of Death Gratuities to the Families of Members of Congress Act (H.R. 3758), which would have achieved the same goal.
No other member of Congress has taken up this reform since Posey’s retirement.
Conclusion
As federal debt approaches $40 trillion, even small, discretionary payments like these underscore the need for greater fiscal discipline. Congress should terminate its outdated tradition of providing death gratuity payments.