Congressional Members Representational Allowance Increase Increased

Molly Henneberg FNC | Jan 27, 2009 | self

[callthemlikeyouseethem]

Heard Molly Henneberg discuss this last hour on Fox News Channel.

[callthemlikeyouseethem]

WOW! President Obama is budgeting with his pay freeze on those White House staff members earning over $100K, 50K people lost jobs yesterday, and members of Congress get triple the usual increase in spending allowance for office costs.

Totalling somewhere around $40 MIL, this year's Member Representational Allowance (MRA) increase, which is usually $25-30,000, averages $90,000 per member. The allowance per office is currently between $1.3 and $1.6 MILLION. The monies go toward day-to-day office costs and travel expenses.

House Administration Committee spokesman Kyle Anderson says:

"failure to address these rising expenses could result in resources having to be diverted from key areas such as constituent service and Member outreach."

With most household and businesses cutting spending, "The increase in the MRA will allow Members' offices to continue to effectively serve their constituents during this difficult period" said Anderson.

Amazingly, there are no news links for this story (yet). I was able to find a cached page from Roll Call, dated Jan 15th, when apparently the Members were alerted of the proposed increase.

[AngryJawa]

A Parliament of Whores.

[Brad from Tennessee]

The U.S. Congress poses a greater threat to the safety and welfare of the American public than any foreign enemy. Al Qaeda’s wisest move on 9-11-01 was not to crash a jetliner into the Capitol.

[NTHockey]

>>House Administration Committee spokesman Kyle Anderson says:

“failure to address these rising expenses could result in resources having to be diverted from key areas such as constituent service and Member outreach.” <<

What constituent service? They never listen to the people.

Member outreach? The only outreach they do is taking money out of my pocket.

In Rome, horses were made Senators. In America, it is the rear part of the horse that gets the honor.

[PhilCollins]

They probably passed the increase this month because they were elected two months ago. They think that, when they run, in 2010, we’ll forget what they did in Jan. 2009.