The lack of a receipt requirement in the reimbursement system is a “ridiculous loophole,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist with the good-government group Public Citizen. “Obviously, it becomes very difficult to determine whether or not this is a legitimate payment and whether it is appropriate,” Holman added.
The program has only a few strict rules: Lawmakers cannot be reimbursed for the principal or interest on their mortgage, they can only get reimbursed for days they actually work or fly to Washington, D.C., and they cannot ask for more than their actual amount. expenses. They are also subject to daily spending limits determined by the General Services Administration. Members are “strongly encouraged,” but not required, to keep records of their expenses, according to guidelines issued by the House Administration Committee.
The same rules apply to every member. But lawmakers’ reimbursement requests vary widely, and because the program doesn’t require receipts or detailed public disclosure of members’ spending, taxpayers must take lawmakers’ word that they’re following the rules.
Of the House’s 435 voting members, 319 members — 153 Democrats and 166 Republicans — received reimbursement for certain food or lodging expenses last year, along with three delegates from U.S. territories. The other 116 members received no money from the reimbursement program, according to a Washington Post review of the first 11 months of data released by the House.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the program’s biggest spender, was reimbursed nearly $30,000 in lodging costs and more than $10,000 in food in 2023. He was reimbursed more than $4,000 for accommodation in two different months and over $3,000 in five different months.
A spokesman for Gaetz said he was reimbursed for lodging expenses on days the House was out of session, but that Gaetz remained in Washington on official business for depositions related to his position on the Select Committee on the arming of the federal government.
“Rep. Gaetz has always followed House rules regarding Congressional reimbursements,” a spokesperson for Gaetz emailed in a statement. “In 2023, Rep. Gaetz devoted significant time to his work at the on the Arms Subcommittee, requiring his presence in Washington, D.C., on days often when there was no vote, resulting in additional reimbursement costs for conducting depositions.”
Other members of the arms committee spent far less than Gaetz.
Some members of Congress who own homes in the Washington area, including Reps. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), and Mike McCaul (R-Tex.), chose not to participate on the program at all. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who owns a $1 million home in Virginia, was reimbursed less than $1,500 a month.
But other D.C.-area homeowners, including Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), have requested significantly higher rebates than banks for some months of 2023.
Mace, who co-owns a $1,649,000 Capitol Hill townhouse that she purchased in 2021 with her then-fiance Patrick Bryant, spent a total of $19,395 in the during the nine-month period ending September 30, 2023, an average of more than $2,000 per year. month. She spent more than $3,000 on lodging in January, March and May.
Swalwell, who purchased a $1,215,000 home in Washington’s Eckington neighborhood, received a reimbursement of nearly $19,000 for her housing costs over 11 months in 2023. In May of that year, he received $2,838 in accommodation reimbursement.
As homeowners, Mace and Swalwell are not allowed to ask taxpayers to cover their mortgage payments and can only spend on taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities and other incidental costs.
“There’s nothing ‘average’ about having three kids and a wife trying to live between two expensive neighborhoods,” Swalwell spokeswoman Cassie Baloue said in a statement. “The Congressman’s expenses reflect the true cost of working in Washington, DC and are approved by the House Administration.”
Swalwell owed about $1,144 a month in taxes and insurance alone, according to figures provided by her spokeswoman, and incurred other home maintenance costs that she declined to specify.
“Every month is different as to what maintenance costs the Swalwell representative is reimbursed for,” she added. “Everything he does is permissible.”
Mace was told by people involved in her office’s finances that she could not justify claiming more than about $1,800 a month for townhouse expenses, according to two people familiar with the discussions, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke to the condition. anonymity to disclose private conversations. A source showed The Post a document outlining Mace’s monthly expenses for the townhouse and calculating it at $1,726.
Mace directed his staff to seek the maximum reimbursement each day the House was in session, regardless of his actual expenses, two former members of his staff and another person familiar with the matter told the Post. Mace denies the allegation.
Mace has denied any wrongdoing and refused to explain his spending in detail. Her office did not respond to questions about maintenance and other costs related to the home she co-owns with her ex-fiancé. Mace owns 28 percent of the house, according to the deed, but did not answer questions about what percentage of the bills she paid. She claimed no expenses for the fourth quarter of 2023, but did not explain why.
“We follow all the rules when it comes to reimbursement,” said Gabrielle Lipsky, a Mace spokeswoman, who said the office discovered $300,000 in other savings last year, unrelated to the reimbursement program. .
Mace has been at war with a group of his former collaborators for months. Her former chief of staff, Daniel Hanlon, took steps earlier this year to run against her in a primary. He he later retired. Mace’s main opponent in the hotly contested June 11 primary is Catherine Templeton, a former South Carolina gubernatorial candidate who has accused Mace of flip-flopping “for glory.”
Misuse of taxpayer funds for member stipends could violate both House rules and federal law, said Kedric Payne, former deputy chief counsel for the Office of Congressional Ethics, who is now vice president of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan government watchdog group. . Payne said anyone who abuses the program could face corruption charges similar to those brought against Aaron Schock, a former Illinois congressman who used government and campaign funds to renovate his Capitol office Hill in the style of the TV show “Downton Abbey”.
“The new travel reimbursement rules cover very specific expenses and have strict monetary limits,” Payne said. “Any member who violates these rules and submits false refund requests may be subject to civil and criminal penalties. The Office of Congressional Ethics frequently investigates blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars by its members. Voters have the right to know that their elected officials are not using public funds for personal expenses.”
The member refund program has been popular, but any perception of unjust enrichment could put it at risk. Congress is already one of the most untrusted institutions of government, and 81% of Americans believe members of Congress do a fairly bad or very poor job of separating their personal financial interests from their work in Congress, according to a Pew poll. Research from September 2023.
The bipartisan House Select Committee on Congressional Modernization suggested the 2022 Member Reimbursement Account program as an alternative to increasing member salaries. Defenders of the program argued that it matched benefits offered to legislators’ counterparts in the private sector and the executive branch and that it encouraged diversity of representation.
Members of Congress earn $174,000 a year, about twice the median U.S. household income, but they typically have to support two households: one in Washington, an expensive metropolitan area, and another in their home district. Many travel long distances at great expense.
Some good governance and anti-corruption groups say higher salaries for lawmakers would make public service more attractive to a broader range of Americans and discourage corruption. But members of Congress haven’t given themselves a raise since 2009 because voting for one is considered politically unpalatable. Some lawmakers have turned to living in their own offices to cover costs.
“I wish members would give themselves a raise that they probably deserve and we could all move on,” said a staffer involved in congressional accounting, who spoke on condition of anonymity because that he was not authorized to publicly discuss the program. “But they don’t have the guts to do it, so (they gave) members a raise through this backdoor route that allows for abuse because there’s no record keeping and there’s no received.”
washingtonpost
