Months after an unprecedented increase to the Members' Representational Allowance, 85% of representatives haven't used even a dollar of those additional funds, according to a LegiStorm analysis.
In March, Congress authorized a 21 percent increase to the House's office budgets for the 2022 fiscal year. That increase - the highest since the MRA's creation in 1996 - gave the average office an extra $317,241 to spend in 2022 year, equivalent to $79,310 per quarter.
For most of Congress, the old funds would have been enough: 85% of representatives disclosed Q1 and Q2 spending at rates that would have been sustainable without any MRA increase.
The MRA increase was intended to bolster staffer salaries in order to attract and retain talent. The average personal office spent just 36.34% of its budget in the first six months of the year, leaving the average office more than $91,000 shy of even touching the increase.
Democrat on average have spent 1.72% more of their office budgets than Republicans, a difference of about $32,500 per office.
The House's minimum salary of $45,000 per year went into effect on Sept. 1. The extent of staffer pay increases from the new salary floor won't be clear until the House releases its Q3 expense data in late November.
As Politico reported this morning, the House Select Committee on Modernization of Congress and the House Administration Committee plan to announce a resolution today that includes a reevaluation about how the MRA is calculated.
