LegiStorm

The House's staffer turnover is still near decades-high levels, despite the chamber's efforts to increase pay last year.

The House's staff retention began its slow decline in about 2009, but the pandemic and Capitol insurrection ignited an exodus that saw 55% higher staff turnover in 2021 than 2020. The House increased its personal-office budgets by 21% last year and implemented a $45,000 salary floor in an effort to stop the exodus and help attract and retain staffer talent.

2022 saw retention improve by 8% over the previous year, according to a LegiStorm analysis. But that's still the second-worst turnover rate since at least 2001, the first full year of LegiStorm's salary data.

Despite being at the forefront of the staffer unionization movement, House Democrats lost workers at an 8% higher rate than Republicans.

Including representatives who left at the end of the 117th Congress, Democrats made up seven of the top 10 member offices with the highest turnover rates. Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.) had the worst staff retention, losing aides at 4.2 times the House's average.

Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) rounded out the worst retention rates among representatives who are still in office.

LegiStorm's staff turnover index is salary-weighted, meaning that the departure of a higher-paid staffer, such as a chief of staff, will count proportionately more than staff assistant or other lower-paid staffer. LegiStorm considers only full-time, non-temporary staff and excludes all interns and fellows.

He's a former CIA agent and a bestselling author who's been played by George Clooney. He's also the latest to register with the Department of Justice as a Ukrainian foreign agent.

Bob Baer is helping Ukraine to "navigate... arms purchases, including political lobbying in the House and Senate," according to a pair of filings published Wednesday morning. He's also working to "make public realtime geolocation of Russian intelligence operative as part of a psyop [psychological operation]."

He's performing the work for free through Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukraine's military intelligence service.

Baer is often touted in promotional material as "one of the most accomplished agents in CIA history." His first bestselling book was later adapted into the movie Syriana, which won George Clooney an Oscar for his portrayal of Baer.

Despite personal offices spending a smaller proportion of their office budgets, House staffers' median annual salaries grew by 21% last year.

House staffers brought home a median of $72,200 last year, including any end-of-year bonuses, according to a LegiStorm analysis of staffer pay in personal offices. In 2021, the median pay was $59,600.

Some of the lowest-paid positions received higher-than-average pay bumps: Staff assistants saw their median salary rise from $41,000 to $51,315 (25%); research assistants' median salary grew from $39,200 to $50,500 (29%).

Median pay for chiefs of staff increased from $159,700 to $177,300 (11%).

These figures are for personal-office staffers only and does not include staffers working for committees or leadership offices.

House personal offices received a 21% increase to the Members' Representational Allowance for 2022. While the average office disclosed spending only 84% of its budget for the year (down from 95% in 2021), it spent $170,000 more on staffer compensation in 2022 than in 2021.

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) has added an American Legion lobbyist to his staff.

Olivia Babine spent the two years lobbying on veterans' issues as an Legion legislative associate. She's now a senior legislative assistant for Newhouse and handles veterans, energy and health care, among other legislative issues.

Before her time at the Legion, Babine worked for then-Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Colo.). She's currently pursuing a master's degree in defense and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College.

An unprecedented increase to the Members' Representational Allowance gave the average House personal office an extra $314,000 in funds last year. But nearly two out of five offices didn't use a single dollar of that increase, according to a LegiStorm analysis of the House's latest spending data.

The average personal office disclosed spending 84.0% of its 2022 funds. On average, Democrats spent an extra 4.4% of their budgets than Republicans - a difference of about $95,000 more per office.

2022's 21% MRA increase was meant to help the House attract and retain staff talent.

To begin tapping into the MRA increase, each personal office needed to spend at least 82.65% of its 2022 budget. Only 62% did so. The remaining 38% of the House disclosed spending that would have been sustainable without any increase. It's common for offices to report expenses after the year's end, so the number of 2022 "underspenders" is likely to shrink somewhat.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) had the House's highest spending. His office used more than 98.7% of its budget, including 85.1% on staffer pay. The average office spent 67.3% of its total budget on staffer pay.