Some congressional member offices get dangerously close to spending their entire budgets - but you wouldn't know that from their initial expense disclosures.
House records for the end of 2019 indicated that Rep. Tom Massie (R-Ky.) had a budget surplus of about $60,000 for the year. But in 2020, new data revealed much higher expenses for 2019. The office had spent all but $9 of their $1.3 million budget.
Massie isn't alone. The average representative waited until 2020 to report more than 8 percent of her or his 2019 expenses. That's more than $107,000 per office.
House data from 2020 now shows 15 other representatives also spent more than 99.9 percent of their 2019 allowances: John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), Fred Keller (R-Pa.), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), David Price (D-N.C.) and John Larson (D-Conn).
The latest House Statements of Disbursements also show that two representatives, Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and John Carter (R-Texas), spent more than 99.0 percent of their 2020 budgets. But if the past is prolog, we can expect dozens more to join their ranks as more data becomes available in 2021 and beyond.
