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The web site used LegiStorm to identify the 126 people who have left the committee since the end of 2000. Some 62 eventually became registered lobbyists. Often staffers leave their position writing financial laws to represent key players in the financial services industry. One former staffer called it "a logical progression" for people who understand the legislative process. Others described the moves as "cashing out," using experience on an influential committee as a stepping stone to a higher-paying job in the private sector.

But the revolving door goes both ways. 16 people currently serving on the committee previously worked as lobbyists, having represented clients such as Wachovia, MetLife, H&R Block and the New York Stock Exchange. Some even go from Capitol Hill to K Street and back again - at least five people now on the committee are there for the second time, having lobbied for organizations like Fannie Mae or the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America in the interim.

Some of the staffers and members interviewed by the Huffington Post said that having K Street experience on the committee provided perspective and diversity. Others, such as Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), worry that lobbyists may be returning to the public sector to advocate for clients' interests from the inside. "You have to be careful with that," Watt said.

LegiStorm has added the latest U.S. Senate staff salaries to our database.

The latest information on salaries of all Senate staff covers the period from April 1-Sept. 30, 2009. The Senate releases its expenditures every six months in large printed volumes - unlike the House of Representatives, which releases the information quarterly and recently started to publish the records online.

The Secretary of the Senate published the two thick books of records earlier this month, and LegiStorm has painstakingly converted the salary records from paper form and entered them into our database.

The Journal used LegiStorm's data to show that since 2005, when an ethics scandal brought about new rules limiting congressional trips paid for by outside organizations, lawmaker participation in such trips has fallen by 70%, to a cost of $2.9 million in 2008. Over the same time period, though, publicly funded trips - known as congressional delegations, or codels - has risen by 70%, to a cost of $13 million in 2008. Unlike the privately financed travel, the disclosed cost of taxpayer-sponsored trips does not include airfare, which usually takes place on passenger jets provided by the military.

Like many of the privately financed trips now on the wane, codels often provide a mix of business and pleasure. The Journal cites as an example a trip to Scotland by 12 members of Congress. In Edinburgh to discuss security issues, the lawmakers found time to do some sightseeing, go shopping and dine at well-known restaurants. Eleven of the twelve lawmakers on the trip then returned home two days before the conclusion of the conference they were in Scotland to attend.

A press release issued by the Justice Department notes that Poole, using his role as office manager, falsely submitted salary paperwork on several occasions between 2003 and January 2007 that allowed him to receive higher pay and larger bonuses than he had been authorized. Pole allegedly concealed the extra money he was receiving by forging documents that showed he had received the correct amounts, and displaying these documents to his supervisor. He is alleged to have stolen approximately $75,000 in this manner.

Pole is charged with five counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government property. Each wire fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Theft of government property is punishable by 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Pole's salary records, available on LegiStorm here, show that his salary increased by over $35,000 between 2002 and 2003, and was over $100,000 throughout the years covered in the indictment - until 2007, when Pole left Kennedy's office and went to work for Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). In that year, his salary dropped back to below his pre-2003 levels - around $63,000.

LegiStorm has added the House of Representatives 2009 third quarter salary data to our database.

This is the first set of data taken from an electronic copy of the official record, the Statement of Disbursements of the House, which was published in PDF format on Nov. 30. Before this release, the information was released in large printed volumes that required us to enter the data by hand.

Having an electronic version of the document allowed us to cut the time required to get the information on the site down from about a month to less than two weeks. However, since this was the first electronic release most of that time was taken in redoing our procedures to handle the new data format. In the future we should be able to cut the turnaround time to three days or less.

Reporters have been finding interesting things over the past week in LegiStorm's database about the relationship Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had with a political aide.

Baucus began facing questions over his relationship with Melodee Hanes when it was revealed that he had nominated her for the job of U.S. Attorney in Montana at around the same time their relationship was becoming romantic. Hanes reportedly withdrew from consideration for the job one day after the Missoulian newspaper contacted Baucus to ask him about his relationship with Hanes and his decision to nominate her for the post.

This morning, Politico reports that Baucus gave Hanes a raise of nearly $14,000 around the time he says that their relationship was becoming romantic. The raise came during the period between April 1, 2008 and September 1, 2008. Baucus has said that his relationship with Hanes began to extend beyond a purely professional one in the summer of 2008. Hanes had been serving as state director and senior counsel to Baucus. Through a spokesman, Baucus has pointed out that Hanes' salary increase was in line with raises doled out to the rest of the office: "Hanes' salary increased by the exact same amount as our legislative director and less than our chief of staff." Salary records for Baucus' office, including hers, can be viewed here.

Using data provided by LegiStorm, Times reporters culled through more than 1,100 travel disclosures and found that while privately financed travel is down since the imposition of ethics rules limiting them, lobbyists and industry seem to be exploiting loopholes in the rules to ensure continued access to lawmakers.

The Times also found that some lobbying organizations and companies finance congressional travel indirectly by giving money to nonprofits - a trend which LegiStorm has reported on before.

For example, when Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI) and his wife in 2009 traveled to Liechtenstein and Germany on the dime of several European companies, many of which lobby in the U.S., they did so with the approval of the House ethics committee. These sponsors paid for Sensenbrenner and his wife to visit a vineyard and a castle, and to spend an afternoon at an Alpine ski resort. The trip was organized by the International Management and Development Institute, a nonprofit organization. On his disclosure form, Sensenbrenner lists the purpose of the travel as meetings "with counterparts in German Bundestag about Financial Crisis/Ministry of Justice," as well as meetings with U.S. embassy officials. Since the sponsoring organization does not retain a lobbyist directly, even though its president is himself a registered lobbyist, rules limiting lobbyist-sponsored travel did not apply. Several big companies had opportunities to meet with lawmakers throughout the weeklong trip.