LegiStorm

House staffer turnover is slowly improving, though it remains near decade-high levels.

2023 saw staff retention improve by 4% over the previous year, according to a LegiStorm analysis. But that's still tied for the third-worst turnover rate since at least 2001, the first full year of LegiStorm's salary data.

The House's staff retention began its slow decline in about 2009, but the pandemic and Capitol insurrection ignited an exodus that saw 55% higher staff turnover in 2021 than 2020. The House increased its personal-office budgets in 2022 and implemented a $45,000 salary floor in an effort to stop the exodus and help attract and retain staffer talent.

House turnover improved by 8% from 2021-2022.

Despite being at the forefront of the staffer unionization movement, House Democrats lost staff at the same average rate as Republicans last year.

Excluding members who left their seats early in the term, Reps. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) and Nancy Macy (R-S.C.) had the worst staff retention and lose aides at 3.5 times the House average.

Reps. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), Burgess Owens (R-Utah) and Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) rounded out the worst retention rates among representatives who are still in office.

LegiStorm's staff turnover index is salary-weighted, meaning that the departure of a higher-paid staffer, such as a chief of staff, will count proportionately more than staff assistant or other lower-paid staffer. LegiStorm considers only full-time, non-temporary staff and excludes all interns and fellows.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who cited the federal government's "reckless spending" as a justification for bringing a motion to vacate against then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), led the House in 2023 office spending - thanks, in part, to new reimbursement rules that allowed the congressman to receive more than $40,000 for housing and meals.

Gaetz received $31,000 in reimbursement for lodging and $10,800 for meals in 2023. Per new House rules, members may seek reimbursement for certain housing, meals and other expenses incurred in D.C. while Congress is in session. Reimbursement is paid out of an office's Members' Representational Allowance, the annual budgets that go to paying for staff compensation and other costs of running congressional offices.

Gaetz received another $1,900 in reimbursement for car rentals, parking and taxis/ride shares, bringing his total 2023 reimbursement to nearly $43,800.

Gaetz's office disclosed using 99% of its 2023 MRA. The average personal office disclosed spending 86% during that time. In 2022, Gaetz's office used 90% of its annual budget.

Staff compensation made up the largest proportion of the office's 2023 expenses and cost the office 83% of its total annual budget. The average personal office spent 79% of its budget on paying staff last year.

Women make up a growing proportion of registered lobbyists — but they're still ringing in Women's History Month as a K Street minority.

According to LegiStorm data, women made up about 39% percent of last year's registered federal lobbyists and foreign agents. That percentage has trended upward since at least 2000 (the first year that reliable lobbying data is available), when women made up about 33% of all lobbyists.

The total number of female lobbyists has also grown over the years, from about 4,000 in 2000 to over 5,000 last year.

Last fall's House speaker crisis has not caused a significant increase in members to announce their departures compared to the previous election cycle, according to LegiStorm data.

So far, 48 representatives have voluntarily left the 118th Congress or announced that they are not running for reelection to the House. Of those, five members (10% of those 48) resigned before the term's end. Another 17 (35%) are running for Senate or another office, and the remaining 26 are retiring (54%).

Those numbers are similar to this point in the 117th Congress: By Feb. 26, 2022, 47 representatives had resigned or announced their plans to leave. Eight members (17%) had resigned from the 117th Congress at that time. 14 more (30%) had announced their plans to run for other office, and 25 (53%) had announced retirement plans. Another 14 representatives announced their plans to leave Congress after Feb. 26.

Former Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.) is the latest ex-member to make his first pass through the revolving door.

Pittenger is lobbying on behalf of quantum-computing firm Quantinuum, per a recent filing. His work began at the beginning of the month and focuses on unspecified "quantum computing" issues.

Pittenger, who served in the House from 2013-2019, is well past the one-year "cooling-off" period required of former members from the time they leave Congress before they are permitted to lobby the House or Senate. Although the rule does not extend to lobbying the executive branch, members-turned-lobbyists frequently begin their lobbying work about a year after leaving office.