House under Dems quietly approved pay raise of $34K for members’ cost of living in D.C.

A quiet rule change in the waning days of the Democratic majority of the House will allow lawmakers to seek reimbursements for the cost of living while they are in Washington, effectively providing a massive pay bump that Congress had avoided for years.

The change, which got little notice when it passed in the voluminous year-end spending bill, translates into a subsidy of $34,000 per lawmaker for lodging, meals and other expenses. If all members and delegates tapped into the full amount, the reimbursements would cost about $15 million, according to an analysis by Bloomberg News, which first reported the change. 

Each House member makes $174,000 per year, far above the roughly $31,000 a year pocketed by the average American worker. Yet lawmakers often maintain residences in their home districts and the nation’s capital, where the cost of living is incredibly high. Many members share apartments with other lawmakers or sleep on the couch in their House offices.

Lawmakers have debated for years how to cushion the costs of D.C. time for members but have been careful not to court political backlash over raises for politicians.

The higher reimbursements were proposed by Democrats on the House Administration Committee and approved without objections in December. It did not gain much notice until the chief administrative officer of the House circulated an email about it last Tuesday.

The email, which was obtained by The Washington Times, says the Committee on House Administration changed the rules on Dec. 30 to allow members to be reimbursed for lodging — hotels, rentals or other housing costs — meals and incidentals while in Washington on official business up to a daily allowable per diem rate determined by the General Services Administration. 

Lawmakers cannot use the reimbursement to pay down any home they own in the Washington area.

“Lodging reimbursement may include costs associated with hotels, rentals, or other housing costs,” the email from the Office of the Chief Administrative Office said. “Neither interest nor principal for mortgage payments are reimbursable.”

The email characterized the lodging portion as a work in progress, advising lawmakers not to submit for reimbursement until voucher standards have been updated to specify what documentation will be required.

Some Republicans said the issue should have been debated with greater transparency.

“You can have a good public policy debate on whether congressmen should be paid more in order to attract a better bunch, and you could have a reasonable debate on inflation adjustments, but it really ought to be done in public,” former Rep. Mo Brooks, Alabama Republican, told The New York Times. “That’s my biggest beef, that it was a clandestine secret.”

The idea stems in part from a report issued by the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, which found that lawmakers have trouble staying afloat in pricey Washington.

“Unlike their counterparts in the executive branch and private sector, members do not receive a per diem or reimbursement for their out-of-pocket living expenses when they are at work in Washington,” the committee wrote.

Newly sworn Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Florida Democrat who made headlines as a Generation Z candidate, tweeted in December about his struggle to afford housing.

“Just applied to an apartment in D.C. where I told the guy that my credit was really bad. He said I’d be fine. Got denied, lost the apartment, and the application fee. This ain’t meant for people who don’t already have money,” he tweeted, later adding: “I also recognize that I’m speaking from a point of privilege cause in 2 years time, my credit will be OK because of my new salary that starts next year. We have to do better for the whole country.”