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Rep. Matheson, big spender; Rep. Goode, not so much
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| Contributor | The Sunset Provision |
| Last Edited | The Sunset Provision Jun 15, 2007 01:39pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, June 15, 2007 07:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) is Congress’s biggest spender while Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va.) is the thriftiest, according to a report on congressional office expenses released yesterday by the National Taxpayers Union (NTU).
The report analyzes how lawmakers spent their 2005 Members’ Representational Account (MRA), the average $1.2 million allotted to each lawmaker to cover the salaries of 18 full-time aides, travel, mass mailings, leased cars, bottled water, coffee and everything else needed to run a modern office.
A lawmaker’s overall budget varies based on the distance between his district and Washington, D.C., and the rate at which the General Services Administration (GSA) charges for leasing office space.
The Rand McNally Standard Highway Mileage Guide is used to determine distances from Washington.
For the first time, the lawmakers’ total expenditures surged past the half-billion mark: Lawmakers spent $525 million in 2005, a 20 percent increase over 2001 numbers.
Matheson spent $1,311,878 in 2005, but it is unclear why he nearly exhausted his MRA — in 2004, Matheson ranked 134th on the list. He spent most of his allotment on salaries ($953,000), and $106,000 on franked mail. The remaining expenditures showed nothing extraordinary.
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