House staffers ended last year with their biggest holiday bonuses since 2006, according to LegiStorm data.
Representatives overall gave an average fourth-quarter bonus of 21.7 percent over previous quarters, for an average of more than $3,300 per staffer. Those are the biggest annual bonuses since 2006, when staffers also received a 21.7 percent quarterly bonus.
Republicans staffers averaged a 23.8 percent quarterly bonus, ahead of Democrats' 19.7 percent.
Seven of the ten most generous bosses have since left the House, either due to retirement or electoral defeat. Retired Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) topped the charts, giving his staff an estimated average bonus of 97 percent over what they made in the previous quarters. Aides to Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) received the second-highest increase, at 95 percent per staffer.
Rounding out the top slots are ex-Reps. Tom Garrett (R-Va.), Steve Pearce (R-N.M.), John Delaney (D-Md.), David Young (R-Iowa), Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) and Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), and current Reps. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and Rob Bishop (R-Utah).
Members don't explicitly report bonuses in their quarterly expense reports. To estimate bonuses, LegiStorm compares average quarterly salaries to estimate each office's end-of-year bonuses. Any money left over from a member's annual spending allowance is returned to the Treasury at the end of the year.
