Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Sept. 12, 2022
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.
Some people and organizations who "caught our eye" last week:
