2021 House Budget Breakdown
by Joseph Bulger
Have you ever wondered what happens to your money after you pay taxes? What does the government do with it? Does a certain political party spend more of my money than the other? Different members of the US House of Representatives come from all over with different political views, and it affects the spending habits of each office differently. Each state, territory, zip code, etc. all have different motivations and patterns that influence their budget and spending habits. After looking at these expenses and where they are coming from, changes and more frugal options become more visible.
When looking at the US as a whole, it is best to break down spending by state first. In the third quarter of 2021, Vermont had the most spending at $2672.15 while Guam was at the lowest at $1045.36. Other territories also rounded out the bottom with the lowest spending per state/territory. While territories spending the least makes sense, the size of the state didn’t tend to effect budget entirely. Large states like California and Florida both spent less than the District of Columbia. Interestingly, size is usually an important part of determining budget, so it’s surprising to see how little of an effect it has. Location to DC seems to have a stronger correlation with higher spending, however. With travel expenses, this seems backwards, but states like New Jersey and Virginia both spent more than California during the 2021 quarter even though they are smaller states. State’s location and size may be contributing factors to their budget, but political affiliation probably plays the largest role in how money is spent.
Republicans and Democrats have different ideas on how government should be run and how resources should be spent. But who spends more? According to the cat plot, the Democratic Party spent around $335,000 during the 2021 quarter while the Republican Party spent around $325,000. This $10,000 difference is seen all parts of the box and whisker plot. While most Democrats spent more in office, the overall spread between the two parties was similar. This being the case, Republicans had more outlier offices that spent a lot more or a lot less than other offices that could influence the median. While seeing who spends the most money on average is interesting, knowing what it gets spent on is even more useful.
Over the third quarter of 2021, expenses were split up into programs, and then put into a category. While programs were more varied and detailed, categories are more general and easier to compare. This includes travel, equipment, franked mail, etc. Travel was the largest category, followed up by rent/communication/utilities, supplies/materials, and personnel compensation. Each of these expenses had 15,000+ entries while the rest were under 6000 each. Seeing travel at the top makes sense in a vacuum, states that were further away tended to spend less than states close to DC. Are there other destinations their representatives are travelling to? Are they necessary, or can they be shifted to something else. In today’s world, technology is at a point where online options are just as viable as doing something in person. Investing in a cheaper alternative to travel (especially air) might lower the budget for any representative despite location or political party. The other categories aren’t as easily manipulated, however with fewer straight forward options to eliminate some budget.
Overall, while factors like political party, and location play a part in house representative office budget, the role of technology should help control the budget in the future. Travel was the biggest expense in the third quarter of 2021. Services like Zoom can move meetings or appointments online, saving a trip on a plane. These trips add up. So small actions would add up over time. Targeting states close to DC that tend to spend more would be a great place to start this change, as the effect would be more noticeable. Going forward, care should be given as COVID-19 becomes less of a global problem. 2021 was still peak pandemic, and some the the behavior recorded in the data may change over time. Comparing pandemic and non-pandemic data sets would help me track the budget changes over time and find more specific solutions to the budget.
