In chatting with my most-lovely better half, we came upon a number of topics on which neither of us felt adequately informed, most of them relating to our federal legislators and their various forms of compensation. I endeavored then, to spend some time this evening seeing what I could do to find some answers to our questions.
Those questions were:
- What kind of salary does the “typical” Senator or Representative earn annually?
- What does Senator Feingold make and how does that compare to other Senators? Has Senator Feingold made any significant “statements” in regards to his income?
- How much time do our lawmakers actually spend on making laws? In D.C.? In their home districts?
- How much does the POTUS earn?
- How many state dinners has President Obama hosted and approximately how much do they cost?
- Who pays for travel expenses of Congress members?
I sought out my answers via whatever Internet sources I could dig up. I will link to the sources on these answers so you can see what I saw. OK, here we go…
The answers, as I could determine, are:
- According to About.com, the rank-and-file Representatives and Senators make $174,000/year. The Capitol also stated this amount. The Minority and Majority leaders each make approximately $193,000, and the Speaker of the House makes approximately $240,000. The Wikipedia page on this topic added that besides this pay, members of Congress get an office and paid staff, but that just seems like “work supplies” to me. I don’t expect to have my office supplies taken out of my salary. While reading over these pages, I also found a few other interesting facts…
- up until 1984, lawmakers did not pay Social Security taxes, but they also were not eligible to receive Social Security. The lawmakers receive retirement benefits under a separate system set-up for federal employees called the Federal Employees Retirement System.
- members of Congress (Representatives or Senators) have to serve for at least five years in order to be eligible for pension. Representatives’ terms are only two years and Senators’ terms are six years.
- members of Congress pay 1.3% of salary into their federal retirement plan and 6.2% into Social Security. Like other federal employees, members of Congress pay one-third of their medical insurance, with the Fed picking up the other two-thirds.
- as of October 2006, 413 members of Congress were receiving pensions. Of that number, 290 were receiving pensions worth approximately $61K/year and 123 were receiving pensions worth $35K/year.
2. Senator Feingold, being a rank-and-file Senator makes $174,000/year. During his career as a Senator, Feingold has not accepted mid-term pay raises. The amount of income that he has turned down totals around $70,000. In May of 2010, he championed legislation to cancel a Congressional pay raise scheduled for 2011 and has worked to eliminate automatic pay raises. Feingold was a key part of getting the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act passed. This act limits gifts and privately-funded travel and also improved lobbying disclosure.
- Interesting to note is that all though Feingold’s salary is $174,000/year, his office’s salary expenditures for about 60 staff members, for the Fiscal Year 2009, were $2,648,412.
- for comparison’s sake, John McCain, a Republican with whom Feingold often collaborated, made the base salary of $174,000 for 2009. His office salary expenditures totaled $2,544,848 with 54 staffers.
- According to Legistorm, Feingold received a gift from Iraq in the form of a chess set worth $160. This most recent “gift” from a foreign country was in 2006.
3. The amount of time members of Congress are “in session” varies from year to year, usually between 130-190 days. In the 2000s, Congress has averaged 140 days/year. In 2009, according to Slate, Congress was slated to be in session for just 137 days. At the end of 2009, the Senate was in session for 191 days and the House for 159. The average work-day 7.4 hours for the Senate and 7.8 for the House.
- The work schedule is formed by the leaders of both parties, and then must be approved by Congress. When not in session, Congress members are allowed to do as they please, though that’s not to say they don’t have things to do. Congressmen and women are expected to be preparing for sessions, visiting their home districts, and meeting with constituents.
4. The POTUS, President Of The United States, earns $400,000/year, has a $50,000 annual expense account, a non-taxable travel account of $100,000 and $19,000 entertainment account. The last time POTUS received a raise was in 2001.
5. State dinners are held to celebrate diplomatic ties with representatives from a guest country. President Obama has had two state dinners so far, one for India and one for Mexico. That is 2 state dinners in 20 months. President GW Bush had 6 dinners in 8 years; President Clinton hosted 28 in his 8 years and President HW Bush held 24 in just 4 years (Foreign Policy)!
- As for the cost of such dinners, the government doesn’t disclose the actual number, but estimates place the cost around $500,000/event. It’s not hard to believe that the numbers can go so high, considering that the Indian state dinner had 320 invited guests and featured performances by Jennifer Hudson, jazz singer Kurt Elling, Indian music composer A.R. Rahman, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Marine Corps Band.
6. Lots of travel info here, lots of “if this, then that”, “if that, then this instead.” If you want the details, go check it out! It boils down to this—sometimes the Fed pays for Congress’ travel and sometimes “private parties” pay for Congress’ travel. There are rules on each type of travel.
- regarding Congress members and airport security, the NY Times quotes a “law enforcement official” as saying “any member of Congress or administration official with a security detail is allowed to bypass security.” I think the important thing here is the “security detail” point. It would seem then that any Congressperson without a security detail would need to follow ordinary security procedures.
- I have sent in two emails, to Russ Feingold’s office and Gwen Moore’s office with questions on this topic. As soon as I get a response, I will update this page!
Thanks much for sharing your time and attention with me. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little, lightly-researched delving into our government! I’d love to hear what you have to say in the comments section!