If they want to take full advantage of this year's budget increase, House offices need to dramatically up their spending since March.
The average personal office spent just 15.9 percent of their budget in the year's first quarter, according to LegiStorm data. In normal years, that number ranges from 18.5 to 19.8 percent.
But this isn't a normal year in House office spending: In March, Congress authorized a 21 percent increase to the House's office budgets for the 2022 fiscal year. That's the highest increase to the Member Representation Allowance since its first authorization in 1996.
The MRA increase gave the average office an extra $327,475 this year, equivalent to $81,868 per quarter.
Only 11 representatives spent enough in the first quarter to touch any of those additonal funds: Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), John Carter (R-Texas), Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Brad Sherman (D-Calif), Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.), Donald Payne (D-N.J.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), as well as ex-Rep. Filemón Vela (D-Texas), who resigned from office the last day of the quarter.
All other representatives disclosed Q1 spending at rates that would have been sustainable without any MRA increase.
The increase was intended to bolster staffers salaries in order to attract and retain talent. Although some offices may have begun increasing salaries before the end of the first quarter, the extent of staffer pay increases won't be clear until the House releases its Q2 expense data in late August.
Offices have until Sept. 1 to institute the House's new minimum salary of $45,000 per year.
