Oh, "Those Squatters"
(said in disdain)!
Now, we have our elected officials being targeted for forced migration out of congress, just because they hail from "The Poors" (
said with clinched teeth) and are homeless.
Oh, "Those Squatters".
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| Oh, "Those Squatters". |
Staffers with US Rep. Keith Ellison, deputy chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, didn’t respond to questions about whether
he sleeps in his congressional office. But he was furious to have been
caught — disheveled and carrying his dress shirt and a bag of clothes —
by The Post heading to the gym one morning.
“I just really deeply resent you guys camping out here,” Ellison (D-Minn.) said. “It’s so wrong.”
He proceeded to complain to Capitol staff about accredited press
being in the taxpayer-funded building. Ultimately, no security personnel
asked The Post to leave.
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), who keeps a futon mattress behind his
office couch and lays it on the floor at night to sleep, acknowledged
that the situation isn’t comfortable.
But he said he refuses to get a DC home because he doesn’t want to be sucked into the Washington “swamp.”
“You can Google my net worth — I’m not [office-sleeping] for the rent
money,” said Sanford, whose net worth Roll Call estimated to be $2.6
million. “I’m doing it because it’s practical and it helps me be more
effective.”
“By the end of the week, you are ready for a real bed,” he admitted.
“It keeps it very clear in your mind where home is — and where home
isn’t.
“Sleeping in your office is not proper’’ ethically, either, Thompson
said. “You get free cable. Free electricity. Free janitorial. Free
security. No rent. It’s a heck of a deal. It probably comes out to
$25,000 to $30,000’’ a year that isn’t claimed at tax time.
For
the slumber-party pols who catch their nightly zzz’s on office cots
after daylong lawmaking discussions and fund-raising dinners, the issue
is simple: money.
Many of them previously got extra compensation, or a per diem, when
they served in their home-state legislatures to cover their living
expenses while at the state capitol. New York state lawmakers in Albany,
for example, get $175 for each day they are in town. In other large
cities such as Sacramento, Calif., the daily stipend rises to $183, and
in Austin, Texas, it is $190.
But as members of the House, US reps receive a salary of $174,000 a
year — a figure that hasn’t increased in nearly a decade — and no
housing allowance, while working in a city where a sparse one-bedroom
pad can start at $2,000 a month. Meanwhile, they also have to pay to
maintain a residence in their home state.
Members of the House and Senate leadership seem to fare better, if
only because they rake in nearly $20,000 more a year, or $193,400. There
are few if any known examples of senators bunking down in their offices
overnight.
While there is no official tally of the number of House hobos who
turn their offices into makeshift bedrooms, interviews with members and
several Post stakeouts of the congressional gym — where the live-in
lawmakers shower — put the estimate at around 100 representatives, or
more than one-fifth of the governing body. Publicly, about 50 members
have ‘fessed up to it.
Their ranks include everyone from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.)
and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to New York Reps. Donovan,
Gregory Meeks (D-Queens/LI), Lee Zeldin (R-LI), John Katko (R-Syracuse)
and Brian Higgins (D-Buffalo).
Zeldin, a military veteran, said sleeping on a bed he stores in his office closet makes him more efficient.
“It must be the Army in me,” said the politician from Shirley.
“Literally, from the moment I wake up from the moment I go to sleep, I’m
just working without distraction. It’s just the way I’m wired.”
US Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), also an Army veteran, said he previously
rented an apartment in DC with then-US Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.)
where they would each pay about $1,800 a month. That all changed when
Murphy lost a Senate bid against Marco Rubio in 2016. Walz, a former
teacher, said he now sleeps on an office cot.
“I’m not complaining,’’ he said. “It’s just figuring how to make all your finances work.”
A House member’s office usually has a reception area, a cramped
section of work space for staff and a separate office for the politician
with a seating area and desk. There is no kitchen or shower.”
What makes overnights in the office possible is Congress’
members-only gym in the basement of the Rayburn House Office Building.
With an annual fee of roughly $300, members have access to showers,
laundry and lockers.
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A typical morning routine for the sleepover pols is to tuck away
their makeshift bed and head to the gym for a workout. They then shower
and usually get suited up there before their staffers arrive back at the
office around 8 or 9 a.m.
“Nobody is going to see me like this,” said Higgins one recent
morning at the gym while sporting earbuds, a long-sleeve T-shirt and
workout pants.
The lawmaker from Buffalo said he used to split the rent for a
basement apartment, paying $1,200 a month, but resorted to sleeping on a
couch in his office when the college bills for his two kids began
piling up.
“I don’t really view it as free housing,’’ he said. And “to be
honest, it’s really convenient to the lifestyle. There’s a gym here.
There’s a shower there. There’s a towel service there.
“There’s a laundry service for gym clothing.’’
US Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) emerged from the congressional gym in
sweaty scrubs after a workout and bemoaned efforts by his colleagues to
ban office sleeping for budget-challenged lawmakers such as himself.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Scott said. “I can’t afford an apartment.”
Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-Washington Heights/NY) said couch-crashing
isn’t for him, even though he, too, faces a high cost of living back
home in New York City.
“My couch is too hard. I’d wake up with a stiff neck every morning,’’ the lawmaker quipped.
Instead, Espaillat said, he found an option: an apartment with rent well south of $1,800 in nearby Virginia.
“I’m probably one of the poorest members of Congress,’’ he said.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan) also doesn’t sleep in his office, but
he said he can sympathize with those who do — and worries that Congress
won’t represent America if only wealthy people can afford to serve. He
supports a cost-of-living hike for members’ salaries, which haven’t
increased since 2009.
But some House members, including New York’s Rep. Claudia Tenney
(R-Utica/Rome) and Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn), balk at any hint
of increasing congressional members’ bottom lines.
The issue is a particularly sticky one for lawmakers, who already
take heat from constituents for what are seen as Washington’s bloated
spending habits.
“We don’t deserve to talk about a pay raise for Congress until we balance the budget,” said Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.).
Mississippi’s Thompson, who is one of those sponsoring the bill to
ban congressional sleepovers, said he recognizes that either way,
something has to change.
With the support of the Congressional Black Caucus, Thompson is
asking the government to issue a report within 180 days on the
feasibility of converting any unused space into a dorm for members of
Congress. But he doesn’t agree with a pay raise or per diem for
Congress, at least at the moment, according to his office.
As for those who continue to sleep in their offices, they should be
hit with a tax burden, Thompson said. Those lawmakers’ living
arrangements should be considered an “accrued benefit’’ in terms of the
IRS, he said.
“I sympathize with the members’ situation. But they knew what the
salary was when they came. And now they found a way around it,’’ said
Thompson, adding that he pays $1,800 for a small studio apartment in the
area for himself.
Calling the office-sleeping “public housing,’’ he added, “I personally see it as a way of beating the system.’’
Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota said she’s open to
considering a housing stipend, although she wants the office sleeping to
end — now.
“I wasn’t allowed to sleep in the classroom when I was a teacher or
in the furniture department when I worked at Sears,” she said.
Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) said she would consider either a wage hike or housing stipend, calling it a matter of equality.
“I think that too often the indirect costs of serving in Congress, in
particular housing in the DC area, can prevent many good candidates,
especially women, people of color and working-class individuals, from
running,” Kelly said.
Instead of a pay raise, Minnesota’s Walz suggested turning former
dormitories once used for the teenaged congressional pages into housing
for members of Congress, a la Thompson’s study.
Higgins said he believes that Thompson’s bill is all about forcing Congress to approve a per diem. And he’s not complaining.
“People have a perception that we get free health care, and after our
term, we get our full pay — none of which is true,’’ Higgins said.
“It’s odd that Congress takes such efforts to undermine its own
integrity as opposed to standing up for themselves as an institution.”
Still, he took issue with the idea of taxing members of Congress who currently sleep over.
“I don’t know if you can call [sleeping on a couch] a benefit,’’ Higgins said.
Some female members of Congress suggested that the practice of
converting a House member’s office into personal overnight
accommodations isn’t just a matter of hygiene or ethics.
“Imagine if you are a staff member and you have to knock on the
door,’’ said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), who is helping to draft the
preventative legislation with Thompson.
“Are [their bosses] going to be in their skivvies? It’s just not consistent with the position they have.”
Only three female US representatives are known to sleep at night in
their offices: Kristi Noem (R-SD), Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) and Jaime
Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.).
But Higgins said that to make any connection with the anti-sex-harass
#metoo movement “is a stretch.’’ Couch-crashers work later than their
staff because of their in-house sleeping arrangement, then rise early
and are dressed long before any aides arrive, he and others said.
“If you are respectful of people, you are going to make sure that you
don’t put anybody in an uncomfortable situation,’’ the rep said.
Lawmakers who sleep at the office say their less-than-ideal living
arrangement is not a matter of choice — and frankly, it can be
embarrassing.
Staffers with US Rep. Keith Ellison, deputy chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, didn’t respond to questions about whether
he sleeps in his congressional office. But he was furious to have been
caught — disheveled and carrying his dress shirt and a bag of clothes —
by The Post heading to the gym one morning.
“I just really deeply resent you guys camping out here,” Ellison (D-Minn.) said. “It’s so wrong.”
He proceeded to complain to Capitol staff about accredited press
being in the taxpayer-funded building. Ultimately, no security personnel
asked The Post to leave.
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), who keeps a futon mattress behind his
office couch and lays it on the floor at night to sleep, acknowledged
that the situation isn’t comfortable.
But he said he refuses to get a DC home because he doesn’t want to be sucked into the Washington “swamp.”
“You can Google my net worth — I’m not [office-sleeping] for the rent
money,” said Sanford, whose net worth Roll Call estimated to be $2.6
million. “I’m doing it because it’s practical and it helps me be more
effective.”
“By the end of the week, you are ready for a real bed,” he admitted.
“It keeps it very clear in your mind where home is — and where home
isn’t.”
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