LegiStorm

Time to hand out those holiday bonuses: The average House personal office is on track to end the year with more than $360,000 left in its annual operating budget.

The average House personal office used just 61% of its office budget in the first nine months of the year, according to a LegiStorm analysis. That puts each office on pace to use 81% of its budget by the year's end, leaving close to $363,000 unspent per office.

The personal average office ended 2022 with 10% of its budget left unspent, or more than $176,000.

As Congress debates regulation of artificial intelligence, Boston Dynamics, the robotics company perhaps best known for its increasingly advanced "robot dogs," has hired its first Washington lobbying force.

DLA Piper is lobbying on "policy and legislation related to supporting the robotics industry and the intersection of robotics with artificial intelligence" for Boston Dynamics, according to a new disclosure. The lobbying work between the law firm and the Massachusetts company began last month.

Potential AI regulations have become one of Congress's most hot-button issues. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Amy Klobuchar's (D-Minn.) Artificial Intelligence Research, Innovation, and Accountability Act, touted as a bipartisan compromise, has stalled since its November introduction. Congress is expected to further prioritize AI regulation in 2024.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has powered up his staff with an energy lobbyist.

Lydia Angel joined Hoyer's staff from Alliant Energy, where she was a federal affairs specialist and registered lobbyist. The utility holding company, which serves Wisconsin and Iowa, spent just shy of $1 million on its federal in-house lobbying program in the last year.

Angel is now Hoyer's policy adviser on energy and environmental issues. Hoyer sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and is ranking member of its Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee.

Neil Kornze, former Bureau of Land Management director under Obama, has moved from the Senate to one of K Street's finest.

Kornze started as a senior vice president at Cassidy & Associates earlier this month. Cassidy's $17 million in federal lobbying income so far this year makes it one of D.C. largest lobbying shops by revenue, according to LegiStorm data.

Kornze comes from the office of Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), where he was chief of staff. Kornze served for three years as BLM director, preceded by a year as acting director. He is also a former CEO of the left-leaning Campion Foundation and Campion Advocacy Fund and was a senior adviser to then-Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Hundreds of members of Congress requested an extension for their personal financial disclosure due date this year. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is the only one whose report is still outstanding.

Members' annual reports are due on May 15 each year. Members have the option to file for an extension allowing them to delay their filings until up to Aug. 13 for representatives and Aug. 14 for senators.

Santos joined 280 other members in filing for an extension in May. But unlike the rest of his peers, Santos didn't meet the extended deadline for filing.

Personal financial disclosures provide the public with important information about members' assets, debts and potential conflicts of interest. 

Published Thursday, a scathing House Ethics Committee report into the congressman's alleged wrongdoings notes that the congressman "continues to flout his statutory financial disclosure obligations." The report also alleges his "[failure] to correct countless errors and omissions" in prior financial disclosures.

Santos is not running for reelection and faces a motion for expulsion from Congress.

Nineteen members filed their reports after this year's extended deadline, with the latest filer, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), submitting hers on Oct. 4. Members are subject to a $200 fine for filing their report more than 30 days after the original or extended deadline, per House and Senate Ethics rules.