Snopes: Did House Republicans Pass a Rule Shielding Themselves from Prosecution?
Stern said that although the rule is new, it merely codifies a position taken by House members for years, and has not been controversial among them. But it is nonetheless troubling, said Meredith McGehee, strategic adviser for Campaign Legal Center, a government accountability organization:
The general thought before this was, anything you generated in your office was considered official business — property of the office as opposed to the personal product of the sitting member. With this rule it is changing that long-held practice and clearly articulating that these kinds of materials don’t belong to the office, but to the individual. We don’t yet know what the exact impact of that change will be.