Members of the House of Representatives voted to forego a pay raise this year, but they didn't make the same choice when it came to their budgets for official expenses - including staff salaries.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel took a look at how Florida's congressional delegation used their Member's Representational Allowance – the money each representative is allotted to pay for staff salaries and official expenses. The newspaper found a number of interesting expenditures in the data, including Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) paying a staffer who also happens to be his longtime girlfriend nearly the maximum allowable salary.
Hastings' girlfriend Patricia Graham Williams, a deputy district director, made nearly $160,000 in 2009. The maximum allowable salary for a House staffer in 2009 was $168,411. Congress has nepotism rules preventing members from hiring family members, but unmarried partners are not covered.
Hastings also spent more of his allowance, which was around $1.5 million per lawmaker, than any other representative from Florida according to the Sun-Sentinel. The paper found that Hastings used 96.5% of his budget. Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.), the lowest-spending member from Florida, used 75.6 percent of his budget.
Other line items highlighted in the story include chauffeured travel and one lawmaker who paid about $2,500 to keep an aquarium in his office.
