LegiStorm: Transparency's Sidekick

The Pentagon may not have wanted them but members of the House Appropriations Committee managed to fund two additional private jets partially for their own use, while also managing to avoid disclosure of these jets as legislative earmarks.

Roll Call, which reported the funding, noted that the move came after lawmakers scolded the CEOs of auto companies for flying private jets to a congressional hearing, turning private planes into a symbol of Wall Street greed leading to the recession.

In all, the committee funded three Gulfstream jets for the Air Force's passenger air service, which transports VIPs such as members of Congress. The Air Force had asked for one of the planes. The extra two that were funded were specficially assigned for Washington, D.C. area units - the same ones responsible for transporting members of Congress.

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Roll Call has a fascinating article this morning that illuminates how it never hurts to hire a congressman's family member when trying to secure an earmark to do work your company has no expertise in.

Once again, Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.) has rewarded an embattled lobbying firm that hired his brother, Kit Murtha. The firm, KSA Consulting, secured a $3 million earmark for a Pennsylvania-based company to develop an underwater "swimmer detection" sonar system to protect ships in port. The only problem? The company, KDH Defense Systems, has no expertise in sonar and specializes in sewing armored uniforms.

We have uploaded financial disclosures for members of the House that have been made newly available since our posting of disclosures earlier this week.

They include an amendment that was just released by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose disclosure was featured in news reports because of her ownership, along with huband Paul, of stock in AIG. The insurance giant's financial collapse led to a massive government bailout. The amendment indicates that they have sold all their stock in the company, although the original form lists it as a partial sale.

Rep. Marion Berry (D-Ark.) has also filed two amendments to his disclosure and he's not done yet. He has said he will file yet another disclosure after a Roll Call story found that he had underreported the value of his home.

The amount House members are allowed to spend on office supplies, franked mail and staff salaries may be about to take a big jump.

The House of Representatives' chief administrative officer asked lawmakers to raise the total pool for member administrative expenses by $90 million, or about 15 percent, according to Roll Call.

The Members' Representational Allowances, as they are known, range from about $1.4 million to $1.7 million for each office. The expense allowance is based on various factors, including the distance of a member's district to D.C. and the cost of office space in their home district.

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House staffers might receive $33 million in benefits, according to a story in Roll Call. The possible increase comes as part of the fiscal year 2010 budget request by Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard.

At a hearing of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch Wednesday, Beard pointed out that benefits for House staffers lag behind those of executive branch officials and other legislative agencies, such as the Library of Congress. Among the benefits that stand to be created or enhanced with the new money are tuition reimbursement and child care subsidies.

"So many of our employees are young people just starting out," said Beard. "What we want to do is have a benefits package that convinces employees to stay."

Earmarks are getting some renewed attention, and reporters are finding fresh examples of Washington's addiction to pork.

Roll Call has a story today about millions of dollars in earmarks requested by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) for his alma mater Tougaloo College. Problem is, the college doesn't know what the earmarks are for and it's not apparent it could provide the engineering services Thompson wants to fund since it has no discernible engineering program.

The story comes on the heels of the Washington Post's look this weekend at earmarks requested by Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). The Post highlighted the John Murtha Airport in Murtha's hometown of Johnstown, Pa., a lightly-used airport which has been kept afloat largely due to earmarks requested by Murtha.

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Roll Call reports today on how the personal financial disclosure of Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) reveals his wife is business partners with someone he invited to testify before the Small Business Committee without any mention of his relationship.

From the story:

It was the second time that Graves had invited his friend and neighbor Brooks Hurst to testify before a Congressional hearing on renewable fuels, and the second time Graves has declined to mention that his wife and Hurst are investors together in renewable fuels plants in Missouri.

A spokeman for the congressman told Roll Call all ties to Hurst were disclosed on Graves' personal financial disclosures. This is true, but without direct knowledge of Hurst's business there is no mention of Hurst. The only item on Graves' 2008 disclosure is a single line among his assets, listing dividends between $5,001 and $15,000 paid by Golden Triangle Energy Cooperative of Craig, Mo., to Graves' wife Lesley.

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Roll Call has clearly been spending some time on our site. The paper used LegiStorm's data for two stories on congressional employees this week.

In today's story Paul Singer looks at shared employees; staffers who provide IT or bookkeeping services to more than one office:

"According to payroll data compiled by LegiStorm, the salaries of many of these shared employees have skyrocketed over the past few years. For example, Susan Anfinson, a financial aide, earned just over $40,000 in 2003 from eight Congressional offices. In 2007, according to payroll records complied by LegiStorm, she earned over $141,000 in paychecks from 13 different offices.

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LegiStorm has launched a new database of all foreign gifts (whether tangible gifts or travel) received by members of Congress and their staff in the past decade.

Our database covers from 1999 to the present. In that time, more than 450 gifts in all were reported having been received by congressmen and their aides by foreign governments. These gifts include tangible ones, such as a ceremonial sword, or travel, such as a ride in a military helicopter. Only gifts above what the law has determined to be "minimal value" is considered reportable. The Senate defines "minimal value" as $100, while the House and executive branch adjust the value by inflation. In 2008, the value for the House and executive branch was $335.

Roll Call's Jennifer Yachnin had a story this morning on the subject of foreign gifts: "Even as new ethics restrictions have made it difficult for Members and staff to accept gifts — aside from token baseball caps or T-shirts — one area remains where lawmakers and their staffs can collect trinkets more or less guilt-free: foreign travel."

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Roll Call used LegiStorm’s congressional data today to show that Chris Riley, chief of staff for Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.), had made impermissible amounts of side income from congressman's campaign. In response to Roll Call's inquiries, Riley quickly returned more than $90,000 to Deal’s campaign committee.

The Capitol Hill newspaper used our salary and personal financial disclosure data for the article. What Roll Call discovered is that because Riley made enough congressional salary to qualify as a senior staffer, he was limited to making roughly $25,000 a year on the side. Riley told Roll Call he was unaware of the limits.

Riley is the fourth chief of staff in the House so far to come under public scrutiny about matters contained in personal financial disclosures after LegiStorm released its database of personal financial disclosures in late February.

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