How 441 people spent $144 million dollars
Three million dollars in printing, nearly five million in travel, and over 2.5 million dollars in mail expenses are just some ways members of the United States House of Representatives spent U.S. tax dollars between July and September 2021. In their reporting, the expenses are separated into nine categories: Equipment, Franked Mail, Other Services, Personnel Compensation, Printing and Reproduction, Rent Communication Utilities, Supplies and Materials, Transportation of Things, and Travel.
Looking at the chart above, how are these expenses justified? The amount of money spent on personnel compensation may seem high but the nearly 114 million dollar price tag accounts for regular salaries and wages paid to federal civilian employees and non-federal employees who performed duties for the U.S. government. Speaking of justifiable expenses, it might be reasonable to assume that a representative from Hawaii or Alaska allocates more to travel than any other state given their distance from the U.S. capital. This article is not here to audit every single representative and their line expenses but to analyze the top spender in each category and try to understand the reasoning behind such expenses.
Looking into the ‘Equipment’ category, Scott Eugene DesJarlais spent $47790.12 of the $1,710,715 million spent in quarter three. DesJarlais is a U.S. representative for Tennessee’s 4th congressional district, a role he has been serving since 2011. When looking at his other expenses throughout the other categories he surprisingly has none, meaning that the entire 47K accounts for the entirety of his overall expenses.
Franked Mail is any mail that may be sent without the usage of postage. Postage in the form of stamps is as for Franked Mail, the postage is the sender’s signature. Within this category, the highest spender is Lance Gooden who spent $76,350. Gooden serves for Texas’s 5th congressional district. Texas has the second highest population in the United States so there might be a reason for the high price of Franked Mail usage.
The ‘Other Services’ category is the vaguest of the lot. Per the United States House of Representatives website, other services is used to detail contractual services/goods. This can account for training, photography, translation services, custodial services, and even data entry. Sheila Jackson Lee is the highest spender here, accounting for $43,576 in quarter three. She currently serves for Texas’s 18th congressional district, a role she has held since 1995. The majority of her expenses within this category are spent on Technology Service Contracts and Security Services.
Personnel Compensation is where most of the money is spent by the members of the House of Representatives. In this category, the highest spender is Gary Palmer who accounted for $419,416 dollars of the total $113,721,858 million spent in quarter three. Gary Palmer serves for Alabama’s 6th congressional district. As mentioned above, Personnel Compensation can go to any individual who performs duties for the U.S. government. This can be elaborated upon by viewing who Palmer made payments out to, Community Outreach Coordinator, Staff Assistant, and Chief of Staff to name a few.
‘Printing and Reproduction’ and ‘Supplies and Materials’ have some of the most straightforward glossary terms on the United States House of Representatives website. The highest spenders here are SYLVIA R. GARCIA for ‘Printing and Reproduction’ and JAHANA HAYES for ‘Supplies and Materials’ who each spent $102,800 and $29,131 in their respective categories.
‘Rent Communication Utilities’ can be a clump of several different things. Personally, I feel that they should each be their own categories but this category is defined as payments for the usage of land, structures, and equipment. Communication and Utilities are defined by the use of rent-related services. It is important to note that any rental of transportation services or equipment such as a car rental is excluded from this category. Nancy Pelosi holds the title of the highest spender within this category. In quarter three her office spent $83,232. Most of the money there went to a “DC TELECOM TOLLS” and to a Postage/Courier Box Rental.
Transportation of Things was not defined within the United States House of Representatives website. The highest spender here was James P MCGOVERN, with a lone payment made to CITI PCARD-ADCOM WORLDWIDE for freight charges. His $1,115 expense makes up over 75% of the total charges in this category for the third quarter.
The final category I would like to look at is travel. Michael San Nicolas served as a delegate for the U.S. House of Representatives for Guam’s at-large congressional district from 2019 to 2023. His expenses for travel totaled $74,864, thus making him the highest spender in the travel category.
The cost to run a government is high. Some expenses seemed more justifiable than others. Michael San Nicolas traveling from Guam over and over made sense why he would rack up the highest bill for traveling and James P MCGOVERN having the biggest expense for freight charges seems to be a one-off. However, I could not explain why Lance Gooden has such a high Franked Mail bill. I am grateful for the transparency of these expenses however I wish more details would be given since they are all using tax payer’s money after all.
A copy of the disbursement data is available at https://www.house.gov/the-house-explained/open-government/statement-of-disbursements
