LegiStorm

Democrats are leading the House in actually using their 2023 Members' Representational Allowances, according to a LegiStorm analysis.

Democratic personal offices spent an average of 5.5% more than Republicans in the first three months of the year, a difference of about $20,500 per office. The average personal office spent 17.9% of its total annual funds in Q1, according to LegiStorm data. That puts the average office on track to spend only 73.7% of their budgets by year's end, leaving an average of $507,600 unspent per office.

But the two highest spenders, Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), are each on pace to spend more than their annual Members' Representational Allowance. Their offices used 25.4% and 25.2% of their budgets, respectively, in three months. Each spent several times the House average on constituent mailings.

Only one Republican - Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla) - cracked the list of the top 10 highest spenders. In addition to Peters and Ruppersberger, Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), then-Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) made up the rest of the top spenders. Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn's high expenses are likely due to them each vacating majority leadership positions in January and shifting some staff and resources to personal offices.

Freshman Reps. Greg Casar (D-Texas), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) and Aaron Bean (R-Fla.) each disclosed spending less than 10% of their budgets. It's not uncommon for members, especially those new into their first term, to report expenses after the quarterly deadline.

Former Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) is now a registered lobbyist.

Butterfield became an officially registered McGuireWoods Consulting lobbyist effective last week, according to a new disclosure. He left Congress in December, a few days before his term ended, to join the firm as a senior adviser for federal public affairs.

Butterfield is part of a team lobbying on unspecified "real-estate issues before the administration" for Baltimore Urban Revitalization LLC, which is managed by Goldman Sachs' Urban Investment Group.

Former members are required to wait one year from the time they leave Congress before lobbying the House or Senate, per ethics rules, but are not prohibited from lobbying the executive branch before the one-year mark.

Rep. David Kustoff's (R-Tenn.) top staffer has landed at the banking industry's biggest lobbying group.

Justin Melvin is the newest addition to the American Bankers Association's government-relations team. The trade group disclosed spending almost $9.3 million on its federal lobbying program in the last year.

Melvin had worked for Kustoff since the congressman took office in 2017 and was most recently chief of staff. He is also an alum of then-Rep. Frank Guinta (R-N.H.), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and the Senate Ethics Committee.

Kustoff, who sits on the Ways and Means Committee, has chosen staffer Will Courtney as Melvin's successor.

Congress is coming out of the closet: Among members of the 118th Congress, 2.5% of representatives and 2% of senators openly identify as LGBTQ - the highest in congressional history.

In the 1970s, openly LGBTQ members made up under 0.5% of the House. By 2013, that number had grown to 1.7% and has gradually increased since. These counts include openly LGBTQ members who served partial terms, such as ex-Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who stepped down from the House last week.

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is the current session's only openly LGBTQ Republican member.

Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) make up the Senate's openly LGBTQ members. Former Sen. Harris Wofford (D-Pa.), who served from 1991-1995, is the only other openly LGBTQ member in Senate history.

Of 7,453 legislators currently serving in state houses, 164 are openly LGBTQ (2.2%).

According to Gallup, 7.2% of the U.S. adult population identify as LGBT.

Congressional Republicans hire far more service members than their Democratic counterparts, according to a LegiStorm analysis.

Republicans employ two-thirds of House staffers who are current or former members of the U.S. Armed Forces. In the Senate, 59% of service members work for the GOP and 41% for Democrats.

Republicans not only employ more service members; they also tend to hire them for more senior roles than Democrats do. "Chief of staff" is the most common congressional job title for Republican service members working in personal offices. Among Democrats, "district representative" is the most common.

The Army is the most popular branch among staffers of both parties, followed by the Marine Corps.