Hypocrisy Alert: Anti-spending GOP members award bonuses

Anti-spending GOP members award bonuses

Some Houston-area lawmakers dole out cash to staff while urging fiscal restraint

By STEWART M. POWELL
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

June 6, 2011, 9:23AM

WASHINGTON — Six anti-spending House Republicans from the Greater Houston area handed their congressional staffs generous bonuses – some exceeding $4,000 – at the end of 2010 when the GOP was pressing for steep cuts in federal spending.

The Republicans’ payouts contrasted with Houston’s three House Democrats who said they did not provide holiday-season bonuses because they preferred providing consistent monthly paychecks or had rejected bonuses because of the nation’s economic ills.

Payroll data compiled by LegiStorm, an independent organization that tracks congressional finances, showed the six Republicans paid an average salary of $55,713 in 2010 and added in an average bonus of $3,097 to boost the total average salary to $58,810. Democrats paid an average salary of $54,375 with no bonus, leaving the average Democratic staffer earning $4,435 less than a colleague on the GOP staff.

End-of-year bonuses are routine on Capitol Hill – provided by 77 percent of House members who responded to a survey for the 2010 House Compensation Study compiled by the Chief Administrative Office of the House. The average bonus? $3,248.

Bonuses "might be a reasonable way to show appreciation" for low-paid staffers’ dedication and hard work on Capitol Hill, said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University.

But large bonuses are "a hard sell," said the author of The American Dream: The Politics of Opportunity and Exclusion in American History. "In times like these with unemployment at 9 percent and underemployment much higher than that, these numbers suggest a sense of entitlement that is truly breathtaking. Did anyone think of returning money not needed for regular salary to the Treasury?"

House members earn $174,000 a year. They pay for up to 18 full-time and part-time staffers’ salaries and bonuses from a $1.5 million-a-year Members’ Representational Allowance that covers payroll, office rent, travel, mail and communications expenses. Some veteran staffers earn more than $100,000 a year.

Bonus bump

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, led the Houston-area delegation during the bonus season by bumping the average staffer’s annual salary by 7.7 percent, or $3,610.

Poe took the action at the same time he was promising constituents that he would "continue to work to return more of your tax dollars back to you and your family and ensure that the tax dollars you send to Washington are spent wisely and carefully."

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