LegiStorm

Rep. Byron Donalds' (R-Fla.) chief of staff has left for Ernst & Young.

Tyler Haymore is now assistant director of legislative and regulatory policy in EY's public-policy office. One of the world's biggest professional-services companies and a Big Four accounting firm, EY last week reported its highest year of growth in almost 20 years.

Haymore had served as Donalds' top staffer since the congressman took office at the beginning of this term. He previously worked for Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), whose office he joined as a legislative correspondent before quickly moving up the ladder to chief.

House Democrats are having a harder time retaining staff than Republicans are.

Compared to Republicans, House Democrats averaged 11% higher staff turnover in the first half of 2022, according to LegiStorm data.

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.

Including representatives leaving Congress at the end of the term, Democrats made up six of the top 10 member offices with the highest turnover rates. But the worst staff retention so far the year belongs to Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz (Ind.), whose alleged mistreatment of staff earned a Politico piece a few months ago.

Other top spots for representatives not leaving office go to Reps. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Alma Adams (D-N.C.). Retiring members are expected to have high turnover.

High turnover doesn't necessarily indicate that an individual member is difficult to work for. But over time, consistently poor staff retention can result in lower productivity and effectiveness and may indicate a workplace that staffers wish to avoid.

The 2022 MRA increase was intended to help the House attract and retain staffers. Its effect on staff turnover will become clearer once the House publishes its final 2022 salary data in late February of next year.

Following an unprecedented MRA increase in March, House Republicans have begun paying their staffers an average of almost $2,600 more per year. The average raise for Democratic House staffers? Just $60, according to a new LegiStorm analysis.

In Q2, Republican House staffers made an average annualized salary rate of $75,100. That's 3.5% higher than their average Q1 salary rate, equivalent to almost $2,600 more per year.

Democratic House staffers averaged an annualized salary rate of $75,800 - still $700 more than the average Republican staffer makes in a year, but only $60 more than the party's average Q1 pay rate.

In March, Congress authorized a 21 percent increase to the House's office budgets for 2022. The Members' Representational Allowance increase was intended to bolster staffer pay in hopes of attracting and retaining talent.

This analysis examines the mean pay increase across all full-time House staffers but does not reflect the distribution of those pay differences.

Both parties averaged a 14% higher annualized pay rate in Q2 than they did in the same time period last year. Then, Republicans paid an average annualized rate of $65,800, or $9,300 a year less than the most recent pay rate, while Democrats paid $66,200, or $9,600 less.

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. 

A Ways and Means subcommittee staffer has left for one of Washington's biggest lobbying presences, the American Hospital Association.

Devin Gerzof is now senior associate director for federal relations at the trade group, which spent nearly $21 million on its federal lobbying in the last year. OpenSecrets ranks AHA as the country's fifth-biggest spender on federal lobbying.

Gerzof spent the last five years with Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee's Health Subcommittee, most recently as a professional staff member. He's also worked for then-Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

Democrats are outspending Republicans on security at the highest rate since at least 2016, according to a LegiStorm analysis of House expense data.

House Democrats disclosed spending more than $347,600 on contracted security services in the first half of the year. That's a 10% increase over their security expenses in same time period last year.

It's also nearly 3.7 times the $94,600 of House Republicans, whose security expenses dropped by 28% since the first half of 2021. Although Democrats have vastly outspent Republicans on security for years, this is the largest party disparity since at least 2016, when the House restructured its expense data.

Both parties expanded their security in the year following the Jan. 6 insurrection, with Democrats increasing their 2021 expenses by 63% and Republicans by 27%.

This analysis includes any spending that a personal office has expressly labeled as a "security service" expense and does not account for all security-related spending, such as staffers who play a security role.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) disclosed the highest security expenses so far this year, spending over $82,500 in six months. Reps. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) followed with just over $40,000 and $38,300, respectively. The highest-spending Republican, Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), used close to $15,900 and ranked sixth overall.