LegiStorm

After coming to a practical standstill following the start of the Israel-Hamas war, privately funded congressional travel to Israel has seen a significant upturn in 2024.

Members of Congress and their staff have taken 34 trips to Israel in the past four months, approved by 18 Republican offices and 16 Democratic offices. While not yet reaching the 159 trips taken between January and September 2023, with only one trip taken in 2023 after the start of the war, this marks a notable rise in recent travel to Israel. 

Since the start of 2024, privately funded travel to Israel has reached nearly $1 million. Privately sponsored travel to Israel surpassed $2.9 million in 2023. 

Top sponsors include the American Israel Education Foundation, U.S. Israel Education Association and J Street Education Fund Inc.

The privately funded trips consisted of educational meetings with government officials that focused on the impact of the Israel-Hamas war.

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) has three legislative assistants in his office, all of whom have advanced degrees. Two of them have two law degrees each.

Suozzi's office stands out as unusually educated. The congressman's office ranks first among all offices in the House and Senate as the most educated, based on a metric that LegiStorm has devised.

Suozzi, a lawyer himself, is followed by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.).

Rep. Mike Ezell's (R-Miss.) office ranks last for most-educated staff.

The most-educated offices list is dominated by liberals, with Democrats holding all 10 of the top positions. Meanwhile, Republican offices tend to focus more on hiring staff with military and other experience over elite college degrees.

LegiStorm ranks best-educated offices by calculating an average education score for each office's current staff. The score is based on a combination of the level of education attained and the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rank of the institutions attended.

LegiStorm's education index uses publicly available formal education records that can be skewed by numerous factors, including geographic distribution of high-ranked schools and composition of entry-level and senior-level staff.

A Republican House staffer has landed a position at Southwest Airlines.

Rachel Black is now federal affairs director at Southwest Airlines Co. She was most recently legislative director for Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas). Black previously worked for Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.), Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) and Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas).

Southwest Airlines spent nearly $2 million on federal lobbying in 2023. 

A Republican staffer has moved to Big Pharma after six years on Capitol Hill.

Liam McDonald is now a director of federal government affairs at pharmaceutical conglomerate GSK plc. He most recently served as a legislative assistant for Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) with a legislative portfolio including health policy. McDonald previously worked for Reps. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Phil Roe (R-Tenn.).

GSK, formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline, spent more than five million dollars on federal lobbying in 2023, the last full year for which records are available.

Many House staffers have long counted on holiday bonuses to make up a substantial proportion of their annual income. But, amid last year's record salary levels, the chamber shifted its emphasis away from end-of-year bonuses in favor of pay distributed more evenly throughout the year, a LegiStorm analysis indicates.

House staffers working for member offices received 11.9% more money in the fourth quarter than in previous quarters ― an average end-of-year bonus of about $2,500 per staffer. In 2021 and 2019, staffers received fourth-quarter pay bumps of 24.0% ($4,000) and 19.3% ($3,000), respectively. End-of-year bonuses are typically lower in non-election years.

As a proportion of their total quarterly income, House staffers in 2023 received their lowest end-of-year bonuses since 2013, which saw an average estimated bonus of 11.6% ($1,500).

Despite the higher bonuses of recent years, staffers still come out ahead. The median House staffer made $73,300 last year, including any bonuses. That's $13,700 more than the median staffer's 2021 pay of $59,600 and $18,900 more than 2019's median $54,400.

Members don't explicitly report bonuses in their quarterly expense reports. To estimate bonuses, LegiStorm compares average quarterly salaries to find payment increases in the fourth quarter.