LegiStorm

LegiStorm has now updated its Senate staff salaries, releasing data for the second and third quarter of 2008, ending Sept. 30.

The release comes six weeks after the Secretary of the Senate published a set of books detailing all salaries and all expenditures of the Senate for the six-month period running from April 1 to Sept. 30. Since that time, LegiStorm has been keypunching the data, as well as proofreading for errors and matching the data to our existing salary and other records.

We released the House staff salaries on Tuesday. The next Senate salary data release will occur in six months, the next House one in three months.

LegiStorm has updated its House staff salaries, releasing data for the third quarter of 2008, ending Sept. 30.

The release comes six weeks after the Clerk of the House released a three-volume set of books containing salaries and all expenditures of the House of Representatives. Since that time, LegiStorm has been keypunching the data, as well as proofreading for errors and matching the data to our existing salary records.

We are nearing completion of editing the Senate salary data as well. The Senate releases its expenditure records every six months, so the existing Senate salary data on our site is naturally getting a bit old, with March 31, 2008 being the last closing date. But this Thursday, we hope to bring the data current to Sept. 30.

Members of Congress will receive an annual salary increase of $4,700 for 2009 as a result of an automatic cost of living allowance that took effect on January 1, raising the default annual member salary to $174,000. A handful of the House and Senate's top leaders make even more than that.

Though congressional pay increases are rarely popular, the 2.8% increase in 2009 has come under fire from some critics who note that many constituents across the country face wage freezes, job losses and general financial despair as the year begins.The critics include such groups as Citizens Against Government Waste and the National Taxpayers Union.

Since the Ethics Reform Act of 1989, member salary increases are made based on a cost-of-living allowance that is granted automatically at the beginning of each calendar year. This practice means that Congress would have to actively take up the issue on the floor to vote to decline the pay increase, leaving a voting record come re-election time.  

We have long showed users what members of Congress earn on member salary pages such as this one for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). Today we have also added a new page about the recent history of member salary increases and about member salaries here.

 

 

The members of the 111th Congress will be officially sworn in Tuesday and LegiStorm has already updated its pages to reflect the new congressional makeup.

We have added all the new freshmen senators and representatives, and have updated the status of those leaving the legislative bodies. We've also added the financial disclosures for the new members filed as candidates, giving their constituents an early look at the new legislators' financial dealings.

We don't yet have biographical information or photos of most of the new members. We'll update those as soon as the official bios and pics are released. We'll also continue updating our lists of members as open seats are filled.

Although embattled Illinois Gov. Rob Blagojevich (D) appointed Roland Burris (D) to fill the Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama, we have not yet added Burris to our list as Senate leaders have vowed to block him from being seated. In another race, Democrat Al Franken was declared the winner for Minnesota's open Senate seat today, but we are waiting to add him to our rolls until all challenges have finished and he is ready to be sworn in.

Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader has a story today about Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) and a charitable foundation the Senator created in 1996, the year the former professional baseball pitcher was elected to that sport's Hall of Fame.

Due to his Hall of Fame status, Bunning can command fees signing autographs for baseball memorabilia collectors. As a Senator, his outside income is limited due to ethics rules, but he can put these fees into his charitable foundation.

However, as his personal financial disclosures available on LegiStorm show, most of the foundation's payouts have gone to Bunning himself. In 2001, Bunning received $15,000 in salary from his foundation. Every year since then, he's reported earning $20,000 in salary. Overall, the Herald-Leader reports that since Bunning's foundation was created, it has raised $504,000 and Bunning has been paid $180,000 in salary. The foundation's charitable donations have totaled $136,435 - with the largest donations going to churches Bunning attends.

The foundation was approved by the Senate Ethics Committee and the IRS when it was created, but several people raised questions in the Herald-Leader's story about the proportion of money that has gone to Bunning's salary as well as the board setup. Rick Robinson - a lobbyist who is one of three members of the foundation's board (along with Bunning's wife and a family friend of the Bunnings) - told the paper the foundation is trying to build a large enough cash reserve so it could give donations using only interest generated by investments. However, he could offer no plan to do so.

Bunning has included records of the foundation's income and expense with his Senate financial disclosure each year. However, the Herald-Leader article shows one way in which members of Congress may be able to skirt outside income limits.