When any individual who has been elected a Member of, or Resident Commissioner to, the House of Representatives dies after the commencement of the Congress to which he has been elected, any unpaid balance of salary and other sums due such individual shall be paid to the person or persons surviving at the date of death, in the following order of precedence, and such payment shall be a bar to the recovery by any other person of amounts so paid: First, to the beneficiary or beneficiaries designated by such individual in writing to receive such unpaid balance and other sums due filed with the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives and received by the Chief Administrative Officer prior to such individual’s death; Second, if there be no such beneficiary, to the widow or widower of such individual; Third, if there be no beneficiary or surviving spouse, to the child or children of such individual, and descendants of deceased children, by representation; Fourth, if none of the above, to the parents of such individual, or the survivor of them; Fifth, if there be none of the above, to the duly appointed legal representative of the estate of the deceased individual, or if there be none, to the person or persons determined to be entitled thereto under the laws of the domicile of the deceased individual.

(July 2, 1954, ch. 455, title I, § 105, 68 Stat. 409; Pub. L. 86–102, July 23, 1959, 73 Stat. 224; Pub. L. 104–186, title II, § 203(5), Aug. 20, 1996, 110 Stat. 1725.)