What Exactly Are The Perks for Members of Congress?
PERKS
New Hampshire Union Leader
Jillian Jorgensen
Boston University Washington News Service
March 24, 2009
WASHINGTON—As Congress attempts to kick-start the struggling economy and scrutinizes the pay and bonuses of business executives, many New Hampshire residents may be wondering: How much money do their representatives in Washington make? And what kind of perks come along with their jobs?
Senators and members of the House of Representatives have fewer perks than in the past, but things like prime parking at the airport and on Capitol Hill and free artwork for their offices still sweeten their salaries. But some formerly famous perks, like free ice delivery to congressional offices, have been eliminated over the last 20 years. Rules about accepting gifts and trips from lobbyists and free rides on corporate jets also have been tightened significantly.
All four members of the New Hampshire delegation pull in the same yearly wage: $174,000. All members of Congress get that same wage except for the majority and minority leaders in the Senate and House, who earn $193,400, and the speaker of the House, who has the top pay at $223,500.
“Right now, most members of Congress, on the pay they receive, which is very generous, have to maintain two homes, at least two places to live, one in your district and one down here. And that gets pretty expensive, but you don’t get to deduct it,” Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said.
Congressional compensation does not stop at their salaries. Members of Congress have plum health insurance plans, safe pensions and big budgets. Senate offices can be sweeping suites, with high ceilings, multiple rooms and even working fire places.
But Gregg said that most of the perks that raised the ire of taxpayers have been eliminated.
“There’s been a significant change in the area that you might call perks in that most of them have been eliminated, to the extent that they existed, over the years,” Gregg, who started in the House in 1981, said. “There are issues that are still out there I presume; I
can’t think of any significant ones. You know, things like the traditional issues everyone used to hear about, meals, and all that sort of stuff, that was an issue, and those have all been eliminated.”
While many small businesses have trouble providing health insurance to their employees because of high costs, members of Congress have access to the health benefits available to all federal employees.
The plan allows federal employees to choose the level and type (fee-for-service or HMO) of health insurance they want for themselves and their families. The government pays up to 75 percent of a member of Congress’s premium, according to the Office of Personnel
Management.
Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., thinks that every American should be able to buy into the plan “to ensure they can have the same exact insurance as members of Congress,” said Mark Bergman, Hodes’ spokesman. U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., uses her husband’s health insurance, but pays for dental and vision supplements, her spokeswoman Jamie Radice said.
The plan is not all it’s cracked up to be, said former U.S. Rep. Charles Bass, who is now on the board of trustees of the Republican Main Street Partnership.
“To be honest with you, my health care plan right now at the Republican Main Street Partnership is cheaper than the federal plan, and the coverage is better,” Bass said.
While many pensions and 401(k)s have been decimated by plummeting stock prices or failing investment banks, members of Congress will receive generous pensions for their government service under the Federal Employees’ Retirement System, available to all federal employees. Gregg is the only member from New Hampshire who has served
in the federal government long enough to be vested in the pension plan.
Pensions are based on an average of a member’s three highest levels of pay in Congress, their length of congressional service up to 20 years, and any other government service.
Because Gregg, who has said he plans to retire from the Senate in January 2011, began his service in the House of Representatives in 1981 under the old Civil Service Retirement System, and served in the federal government non-continuously, it is difficult to calculate how much his pension will be worth. But Pete Sepp, vice president for policy and communications at the National Taxpayers Union, estimates that Gregg will receive around $55,000 a year.
When a member of the delegation needs to hop a flight back to New Hampshire for one of the weeks Congress is off, the government foots the bill – as long as it’s for business.
“That can become tricky,” Bass said. “I was allowed to fly to Boston or Manchester, but I was not allowed to fly to Providence to get to New Hampshire.”
Members can also use campaign money to travel to areas out of their district, as well as to pay for other expenses.
They also get to avoid one of the biggest airport hassles: finding and paying for a parking spot.
Gregg, Shaheen, Hodes and Shea-Porter, along with their congressional colleagues, Supreme Court justices and the diplomatic corps, can park for free at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles International Airport, according to Tara Hamilton, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
They can park in special spots and lots reserved for them, or in any spot in the lots other customers pay to park in, including hourly lots, Hamilton said.
Parking costs as much as $36 a day in the lots that are closest to the terminals at Reagan National, and $12 a day in the economy lot. At Dulles, the “valet” lot in front of the terminal will cost $30 for the first day and $19 for each additional day, while the economy lot costs $10 a day.
Dulles International Airport has 100 spaces reserved for the members of Congress, justices and diplomats out of 24,069 total parking spaces. Reagan National Airport has 80 designated spaces out of approximately 7,500 total parking spaces.
Bass said many members of Congress get dropped off at the airport by staffers, and said he usually took the Metro train to Reagan National Airport.
It is also free for members of Congress to park on Capitol Hill, where members can park in garages at the Senate and House office buildings. The buildings are all attached underground to the Capitol, and if a member is a in a rush he or she (and staff and members of the press) can take the Capitol’s free tram to and from their office buildings.
Some perks have more to do with convenience than money. Members of Congress and their staffers only have to go to the basement of their office buildings to find banks, barber shops, post offices and even shoe shines – and all at a reasonable price.
Members of the House also can pay a “nominal” monthly fee to work out at the Wellness Center reserved for members and former members only (except those who have become lobbyists, who are not allowed inside), said Dave Helfert, a spokesman for Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, head of the House gym committee.
Neither Hodes nor Shea-Porter uses the gym, according to their offices, but Gregg does pay for a membership at the Senate gym.
Visits to the Smithsonian Institution museums are free to everyone, but for Congress, they can serve as trips to pick out some new decor: some members can display decorative items from the collections in their offices.
The Smithsonian only lends to members with Capitol offices, usually reserved for the congressional leadership, because the Senate and House curators can protect the artwork there, said Tim Nolan, in the Smithsonian’s Office of Government Relations.
So if a member of the New Hampshire delegation is chosen to be a party whip or minority leader, can he or she display some of the Smithsonian’s dinosaur bones?
“It just depends on what they ask for and what our museums can comply with,” Nolan said.
But reform of the federal pay, retirement structure and ethics rules have stripped Congress of some of the cushier perks of the past, leaving them nearer to the level of other federal employees.
“Over the years, the compensation structure for members of Congress has been made to differentiate very, very little from that of the person working in the post office in Peterborough, N.H.,” Bass said.
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