Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Dec. 9, 2019
Two Democratic representatives are on pace to overspend their 2019 office budgets after three quarters, according to a new LegiStorm breakdown of member expenses.
Guam Delegate Michael San Nicolas tops the ranks with 79.45 spent in the first three quarters of the year. The average representative spent 62.45 percent of her or his budget during that same time period. San Nicolas has already spent nearly 15 percent of his total annual budget on travel, while the average representative has spent only 2.7 percent on travel. Official expense books do not detail where San Nicolas's office traveled to rack up $204,000 in taxpayer travel expenses in nine months, but the spending includes roughly $49,000 on commercial transportation in the third quarter alone.
Guam is nearly 8,000 miles from Washington, D.C. Member office allowances vary somewhat, with the district's distance from Washington being a key factor in how much of an increase a member might get.
Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) follows San Nicolas with 78.26 percent of his budget gone, thanks mainly to heavy spending on printing and franking - a common strategy to reach constituents. The average representative has spent about 1.6 percent of her or his office budget on this form of constituent outreach.
Rep. Tim Walberg (Mich.), the lone Republican among the House's top nine spenders, joins San Nicholas, Scott, Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), Susan Davis (D-Calif.), Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), David Loebsack (D-Iowa) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) as the biggest spenders.
Some people and organizations who "caught our eye" last week:
