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House Republicans topped Democrats as the most generous givers of year-end bonuses paid from government coffers, with 9 of the top 10 biggest bonus spenders being GOPers. The top spot went to a Democrat.

That strong GOP tilt, a reversal of previous trends, happened in a year that saw post-election bonuses drop to its lowest level in a decade.

Campaigns seeking to cudgel the opposition this election season have been employing LegiStorm in a variety of contexts.

Some examples: 

In Missouri's heated Senate race, the campaigns of Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) traded barbs over the level of pay females in Akin's office receive. Citing LegiStorm's database of congressional staff salaries, McCaskill's campaign alleges that Akin paid female staffers 23.4 percent less than men from 2001-2010. Akin's campaign quickly retorted using LegiStorm's information that in the most recent quarter of 2012, female Akin staffers earned $3,158 more than their male counterparts.

Traditional fourth-quarter staff bonuses plummeted in the House of Representatives as budget cuts have taken their toll.

The average congressional aide earned a 3.6% salary increase in the fourth quarter of 2011, an almost two-thirds drop from last year's rate and nearly half the previous low since LegiStorm started tracking salaries in 2000.

LegiStorm added the House's 2011 fourth quarter salaries to our site today following yesterday's release by the House of Representatives. The new data allowed us to take our first look at the bonus habits of the 112th Congress. Many Republican members of Congress were swept to power on promises to cut spending, and the House imposed cuts to the amount that members could spend. Overall spending and bonuses were both down compared to previous years.

Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) paid out more than $200,000 in bonuses in his final two days in office, raising his total bonus numbers to nearly half a million dollars.

That final splurge on his departing staff meant that the Blue Dog Democrat was - by a six-figure margin - the most generous bonus giver of any member of Congress. These payments came after Marshall's loss in an election in which he claimed to be a fiscal conservative. 

In one television campaign ad, Jim Marshall noted that he "leads the Balanced Budget Caucus and spends less on his office than any other Georgia member of Congress."

Congressional bonuses keep generating news items, even as we prepare for the first look at the salaries paid by newly-elected members.

The Los Angeles Times released their look at bonuses paid by California's delegation today. The Times found 20 of the state's 53 House members said they paid bonuses at the end of 2010, and five paid out at least $100,000 to all staff combined.

The story is the latest to use LegiStorm's bonus data, which we put together when the 2010 fourth quarter salaries were released. LegiStorm found nearly one in 10 House members paid at least $100,000 in bonuses to their staff, and defeated or retiring members paid nearly twice as much in bonuses, on average, as returning members. You can see our past posts on bonuses here.

LegiStorm's recent examination of congressional bonuses continues generating widespread interest, but it helps to look more closely at the numbers to see if members are being as generous with bonuses as the numbers look at first.

Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.) is a case in point. Her office contacted LegiStorm to point out the congresswoman did not give any fourth-quarter bonuses this past year, and a look at the raw salary numbers bears that out. However, in our chart the average salary for Tsongas' staff is shown to have risen 9.59% in the fourth quarter, and the total payroll increased $27,737. These numbers are also correct, which requires some explanation.

In the case of Tsongas' office, staff changes early in 2010 caused both the total and average salaries in the fourth quarter to look inflated over the previous three quarters, even though the numbers are generally flat between the third and fourth quarters. The matter is confused more by some faulty reporting of one top aide's employment dates in July. Official salary records suggest that Communications Director Michael Brownlie worked the whole month but made only $78 - barely $2 a day - before he took leave from the office. The faulty dates made it seem like he was getting a huge salary decrease which affects the average staff salary for the first three quarters.

Nearly 1 in 10 House members paid at least six-figure bonuses to their staffs last year after a hard-fought election. Most who paid such bonus packages were defeated in the election or retired - with most of those departing being Democrats, of course, given the election tilt toward the GOP.

But three of the top four bonus payers last year who remained in office were Republicans, including Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee. He paid roughly $133,000 in bonuses to his personal staff, which does not include his committee staffers.

These are the findings of a new analysis of House salary data performed by LegiStorm. The data about bonuses paid by individuals can be found at a new online resource we have created at http://www.legistorm.com/salaries/house_bonuses_by_member.html

With this free resource, site users can see how all members compare with one another in terms of how open they were with the bonus checkbook provided by taxpayers. And we have performed the analysis for not just 2010, but for all years from 2001 forward.

Numbers LegiStorm has compiled suggest that bonuses were nearly twice as large for staffs of departing House members as they were for continuing members. The bonuses can be inferred based on the spike in 4th quarter payouts compared to the first three quarters of the year. Because of the way Senate salary data is reported - in six-month intervals based on fiscal year and not calendar year - a comparable analysis will not be easily possible even when the data is available in 3 months.

We have created some graphs that clearly illustrate the bonus phenomenon in the House. The graph of overall spending by office shows that bonuses were most pronounced in member offices. Committee payrolls showed a significant but less pronounced spike in 4th quarter pay, whereas House leadership offices and administrative offices do not appear to have a major end-of-year bonus tradition.

More detailed analysis of the data provide strong confirmation that departing members - mostly Democrats in 2010 - were responsible for the biggest bonus payouts. Our graph of average quarterly salaries overlays the 4th quarter bump in spending per staffer over top the actual quarterly spending.

Congressional bonuses continue to make the news, especially as the lawmakers giving bonuses are decrying corporate payouts or talking about deficit reduction.

Indianapolis TV station 6News reported Monday that Indiana's congressional delegation gave more than $600,000 in year-end bonuses to staff from 2006 through 2008. Many of the lawmakers gave bonuses at the same time they were denouncing corporate bonuses, according to the station.  

All bonuses to staff come out of the members' represenatational allowance, which covers all expenses for the congressional office. Any amount not spent would be returned to the U.S. Treasury.

Local news media outlets across the country have taken an interest in congressional staff bonuses, using salary data provided by LegiStorm.

The stories - in places like Wisconsin, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah - follow up on a Wall Street Journal article earlier this month that reported that House members handed out the highest seasonal bonuses in years to their own employees in 2008. The scrutiny of congressional staff bonus practices comes as members of Congress have railed against CEOs who paid hefty bonuses with taxpayer bailout money. 

For example, the Salt Lake Tribune reports that former Utah Rep. Chris Cannon (R) handed out bonues equivalent to a 50 percent pay raise for some of his staffers after losing his district's Republican primary. According to the Tribune, Cannon "wanted to thank his staffers for the work they had done and entice them to stay until he left office in January. But his primary motivation was helping them get bigger salaries in their next jobs."