LegiStorm

Interest-group spending on private congressional travel reached its highest point since before the pandemic.

Members and staff accepted 1,721 trips worth more than $8.1 million in 2023, according to a LegiStorm review of official trip disclosures. Nearly 60% of those travel expenses went toward courting members, who accepted 326 trips worth $3.6 million.

That marks the highest annual travel spending since 2019, when interest groups allocated $9.3 million (adjusted for inflation) for member and staff travel.

Congressional travel halted as the pandemic hit in March 2020 and began to rebound in 2021.

Since then, sponsors have opted to send members and staff on a smaller number of more expensive trips compared to years past. Congress's 1,721 cost an average of $4,700 this past year. In 2019, sponsored paid an inflation-adjusted average of $4,000 each across 2,317 trips.

That trend is even more pronounced among Democrats, whose trips made up 40% of last year's travel. Democrats' travel averaged $6,400 a piece; Republicans' travel averaged $3,600.

The American Israel Education Foundation ($1.9 million) and the Aspen Institute ($1.1 million) were the year's top spenders.

A Democratic staffer-turned-lobbyist has landed back at the Capitol.

Rachel Devine is now senior counsel for the majority on the Aviation, Safety, Operations and Innovation Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. She recently worked as senior vice president for global policy and regulatory affairs at Boom Technology Inc., a Colorado-based firm that develops supersonic aircraft. She lobbied on several issues involving the FAA, NASA and the U.S. Air Force, including a focus on aviation sustainability, emissions and noise.

Devine was previously a stalwart of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. She served in various roles since 1999, interspersed with outside gigs relating to air travel. She finished as Democratic staff director and senior counsel for the Aviation Subcommittee in 2019.

One of K Street's biggest firms has snagged a staffer from Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.V.) Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Peter Stahley is now a senior vice president at Cassidy & Associates. Stahley, a former National Park Service civil engineer, was most recently a professional staff member to Energy and Natural Resources Committee Democrats under retiring Chair Manchin.

Cassidy & Associates has so far disclosed more than $21.6 million in federal lobbying revenue for 2023, with energy among the lobbying firm's most in-demand issue areas. As the American Prospect pointed out last week, Manchin's committee staffers regularly decamp to the oil and gas lobby.

A Democratic House staffer has moved to law firm Dykema Gossett's legislative team.

Michael Snider joined the law firm this month as a legislative specialist. Dykema Gossett maintains federal lobbying registrations with about 18 clients who range from city governments to Little Caesars Pizza.

Snider spent the last year working for Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), where he was most recently a legislative assistant.

Looking for a pay bump? Three members now pay their staff a median salary in the six figures, according to a new LegiStorm analysis.

Sen. John Fetterman's (D-Pa.) staffers have made a median annual salary rate of nearly $103,900 in the first nine months of the senator's freshman term. Reps. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) each paid their median staffer an annual rate more than $101,700 since January.

This analysis, which includes only those staffers working full time and on a permanent basis, examines Senate personal-office salary rates from October 2022-September 2023 and House personal-office salary rates from January-September 2023. For Fetterman and other freshman senators, the data spans from January-September 2023.

During that time, Fetterman's median staffer made an annual rate that is 44% higher than the Senate median of $72,000. Annual pay rates for Gooden's and Grijalva's median staffer were 47% higher than the House's $69,000 median.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) paid the lowest rates of their respective chambers, with a $46,700 median among Cuellar's personal-office staff and a $48,800 median among Grassley's.