[EDITOR’S NOTE: Earl F. Glynn studied 100,000 records of office spending by the U.S. House of Representatives published on the Web for the first time late last month, and compiled into a database by the Sunlight Foundation.]

Guam Delegate Madeleine Z Bordallo spent $6,090 on food and beverages on Aug 11 while visiting her home district with the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee.

It’s just one facet of $145 million spent by House of Representative members revealed in the Statement of Disbursements. One small charge to taxpayers was $8.80 for laundry, and the largest single recipient was the U.S. Postal Service at almost $6 million.

A Guam Chamber of Commerce newsletter and a U.S. Navy news report indicate Bordallo visited Guam Aug 10-12, 2009 with other members from the U.S. House, including committee chair Nick Rahal [D, WV-3], Eni F. H. Faleomavaega [Delegate, American Samoa], Donna Christensen [Delegate, Virgin Islands], Henry Brown [R, SC-1], and Gregorio Kilili Sablan [Delegate, Northern Mariana Islands].

Sunshine on Congressional expenditures

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [D, CA-8] ordered Web publication last month and kept a pledge she made in June.

This online document makes information available without visiting the Clerk of the House in Washington, DC, visiting a Federal Depository Library or buying the heavy documents from the Government Printing Office.

Publication of the 3,400 pages was the first step in shining more light on the expenditures, but the PDF file could not be directly studied with computer analysis tools.

Searchable database of expenditure

The Sunlight Foundation, a non-partisan non-profit Washington, D.C. organization, published a searchable database after extracting the data from the PDF. The foundation provided raw data files that could be downloaded and analyzed.

Almost 100,000 records of $145 million in expenditures reveal a wide array of purchases with tax funds.

Food & Beverage expenditures

The top five expenditures for “food & beverage,” a subcategory of “supplies and materials”:

Top 5 Single-Entry Food & Beverage Expenditures in 2009 Q3 by U.S. House

Representative	Date	Payee	Amount
Madeline Z. Bordallo [Guam]	8/11/2009	Outrigger Guam Resort	$6,090
Steny H Hoyer [D, MD-5]	8/28/2009	Middleton Hall	$5,380
Jean Schmidt [R, OH-2]	7/31/2009	Capitol Host	$4,657
Barbara Lee [D, CA-9]	9/23/2009	Capitol Host	$4,066
Kevin McCarthy [R, CA-22]	8/25/2009	Vincent Fong [District Director]	$3,863

Download all 2911 records of Food & Beverage expenditures by members of Congress in Q3:  CSV • Excel • PDF.

These single records must be aggregated because most have multiples in any category and subcategory.

When all her food and beverage records were totaled, Bordallo led all members of the House with a $12,834 total. After Bordallo, Linda Sanchez [D, CA-39] was second with $7,233.

The report has many unexplained entries. In this 2009 Q3 report, a $5,941 expense from Aug. 24, 2008, by C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger [D, MD-2] was followed by a separate -$5,941 entry that cancelled the expense. It’s unclear what that was about.

Update:  There is a separate category for travel meals.  Darrel Issa [R, CA-49] spent the most on travel meals, $2,041.  Yesterday we reported that Suzanne Kosmas [D, FL-24] spent the most on travel meals, however that amount from the House Statement of Disbursements was in error.  See Travel meal spending report for Congresswoman Kosmas to be amended.

Other notable expenditures

Which member of the House was the only one to buy new carpet? Which member spent $8.80 on laundry? Which member spent the most on bottled water? Or janitorial service? Those expenditures and others are shown in the table below.

Notable expenditures of House Members in 2009 Q3

Representative	Description	Amount
Equipment
Sanford D Bishop Jr	Carpet	$2,468
Linda T. Sanchez	Computer Hardware	$33,829
Carolyn C Kilpatrick	Computer Hardware	$28,870
J. Randy Forbest	Computer Software	$6,990
Richard “Doc” Hastings	Furniture	$18,931
Mike Rogers (MI)	Furniture	$12,638
Dave Camp	Office Equipment	$23,098
James P McGovern	Equipment Maintenance	$14,155
Robert E Latta	Equipment Purchase	$37,390
Lamar Smith	Equipment Purchase	$19,536
Allyson Schwartz	Equipment Warranties	$2,028
Franked Mail
John P. Sarbanes	Franked Mail	$72,286
Chellie Pingree	Franked Mail	$72,105
Other Services
Rodney Frelinghuysen	Equipment Installation	$6,495
Anthony D Weiner	Insurance	$2,918
Jesse L Jackson Jr	Janitorial Services	$8,520
Chaka Fattah	Janitorial Services	$3,475
Mike Quigley	Laundry Service	$8.80
Nancy Pelosi	Other: Performance Based Ergonomics	$179
James R Langevin	Non-technology service contract	$37,615
Paul E Kanjorski	Non-technology service contract	$16,768
Bill Pascrell, Jr	Security Service	$14,133
John Olver	Security Service	$6,378
Randy Neugebauer	Technology service contracts	$17,486
Marcy Kaptur	Technology service contracts	$16,257
Steve Kagen	Training expenses	$15,000
Luis V Gutierrez	Training expenses	$13,500
Ruben Hinojosa	Translation & Interpretation	$2,288
Maxine Waters	Translation & Interpretation	$1,910
Louise McIntosh Slaughter	Web Development, E-mail	$48,894
Mark Steven Kirk	Web Development, E-mail	$27,310
Printing and Reproduction
Donna F Edwards	Printing, …: Ads	$17,846
Doug Lamborn	Printing, …: Ads	$16,914
Rent, Communication, Utilities
Earl Pomeroy	DC Tel Tolls (transfer)	$12,733
John Linder	DC Tel Tolls (transfer)	$11,672
Gene Taylor	District Office Rent – Federal	$38,831
Jerrold Nadler	District Office Rent – Federal	$31,491
Anthony Weiner	District Office Rent – Private	$43,405
Jim Costa	District Office Rent – Private	$41,487
Elijah Cummings	Equipment Rental	$14,665
Eleanor Holmes Norton	Equipment Rental	$13,819
John R Carter	Postage, Courier, Box Rental	$12,253
Corrine Brown	Postage, Courier, Box Rental	$5,501
Paul Ryan	Recording (Outside)	$18,000
Nita M Lowey	Telecom Service, Equipment & Tolls	$42,543
John A. Yarmuth	Telecom Service, Equipment & Tolls	$42,329
Brian Baird	Temporary Space Rental	$17,222
James P Moran Jr	Temporary Space Rental	$5,728
Madeline Z Bordallo	Utilities	$6,771
G.K. Butterfield	Utilities	$6,171
Supplies and Materials
Adrian Smith	Automobile Expenses	$1,619
Stephanie Herseth	Automobile Expenses	$1,068
Tom Price	Bottled Water	$1,202
John B. Larson	Bottled Water	$1,091
Madeline Z Bordallo	Food & Beverage	$12,834
Linda T Sanchez	Food & Beverage	$7,233
Kevin Brady	Habitation Expenses	$4,319
Bennie G. Thompson	Habitation Expenses	$3,772
Solomon P Ortiz	Office Supplies (Outside)	$16,664
Emanuel Cleaver	Office Supplies (Outside)	$16,150
James Sensenbrenner Jr	Office Supply (Transfer)	$19,323
Sheila Jackson-Lee	Office Supply (Transfer)	$8,641
Henry E Brown Jr	Publication Ref Material	$43,603
Ed Pastor	Publication Ref Material	$18,139
Travel
Ed Pastor	Automobile Leases	$16,758
John T Salazar	Automobile Leases	$5,268
Donald M Payne	Car Rental	$8,334
Dana Rohrabacher	Car Rental	$7,869
Richard “Doc” Hastings	Commercial Transportation	$29,292
Adrian Smith	Commercial Transportation	$18,676
Marion Berry	Gasoline	$2,038
Randy Neugebauer	Gasoline	$1,220
Candice S Miller	Lodging	$9,754
C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger	Lodging	$9,150
Suzanne M Kosmas	Travel Meals	$2,996
Darrell E Issa	Travel Meals	$2,041
Kevin Brady	Travel Miscellaneous	$1,524
Steve King	Private Owned Vehicle Mileage	$24,003
Mike Ross	Private Owned Vehicle Mileage	$17,368
Anthony D Weiner	Taxi, Parking, Tolls	$4,484
Corrine Brown	Taxi, Parking, Tolls	$3,042
Don Young [R, AK]	Travel Reimbursement	$62,623
Madeline Z Bordallo [Guam]	Travel Reimbursement	$51,439
Jerry Moran [R, KS-1]	Travel Reimbursement	$38,176
Harry Teague [D, NM-2]	Travel Reimbursement	$36,513

While 99 percent were from 2009, the data also showed expenditures from 2007 and 2008.

The expenditures by the House members are broken down in the Statement of Disbursements into nine categories.  Each of these categories is subdivided by a description field.

The following shows a summary for each of these category-description combinations:

Summary of Expenditures of House Members by Category and Subcategory

Summary of Expenditures by U.S. House Members, 2009, Q3 –

A ZIP with 69 summary CSV files for each of the Category-Description combinations can be download here. This ZIP includes the file, SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS-FOOD & BEVERAGE.csv, which was used in the analysis above.

An unusual expenditure from 2007 and 2008 reported in 2009 Q3 was from former Congressman Bobby Jindal, who is now Governor of Louisiana.

There is a $242.18 expenditure by Bobby Jindal for the period Dec 14, 2007 to March 10, 2008 for “janitorial & maintenance services”. Since Jindal was elected governor on Oct 20, 2007, the charge for this period is after he left the House.

Who are the big recipients of the House’s expenditures?

Here is a list of payees who received $100,000 or more from expenditures by House members:

Recipients of $100,000 or more from House Members’ Expenditures

Payee	Amount
United States Postal Service	$5,985,873
Citibank Gov Card Service	$3,256,023
“blank”  [see below]	$3,031,029
Lockheed Martin Desktop Solutions	$2,919,305
General Services Admin.	$841,832
iConstituent LLC	$794,329
The Franking Group	$751,226
AT&T And AT&T Mobility	$727,373
InterAmerica Technologies Inc.	$549,381
CDW Government Inc	$461,937
Housecall	$369,165
David L. Andrukitus, Inc.	$352,087
Verizon Wireless	$325,776
Constitutent Town-Hall Service	$315,796
Fireside21	$263,408
Citizen Dialog, LLC	$259,575
Constituent Contact Mail, Inc	$246,597
Constituent Communication	$219,769
Xerox Corporation	$204,764
US Capitol Historical Society	$192,470
Congressional Quarterly Inc.	$181,046
Dexteranet	$172,977
Alliance Micro	$155,766
Boise Cascade	$151,929
Hometown Connection, Inc	$148,422
DialogConcepts Inc.	$142,321
Constituent Services Inc 2	$134,509
Dell Direct Sales	$131,559
Strategic Consulting	$122,257
Mount Vernon Printing	$114,015
Cornerstone Printing, Inc	$108,865
Depart Of Homeland Security	$108,854
Monarch Constituent Service	$108,727
DCS Congressional, LLC	$102,782
American Direct Mail	$102,259
Accurate Word LLC	$102,105
Verizon New York Inc	$101,322

13,375 records had a “blank” payee, which apparently is used to indicate a transfer payment to another government agency.

The payees receiving $100,000 or more only account for about 17 percent of the total expenditures by House members.

Members’ Representational Allowance

House members all have slightly different budgets, called the Members’ Representational Allowances.  (See Excel file here with data.)  The target budgets range from about $1.3 million to $1.9 million.

The analysis above only includes expenditures that House members made from their individual budgets.

But the House spends nearly twice as much on its operation.

The Big Picture

The Statement of Disbursements includes information about all expenditures by the House, which  total almost $320 million:

	$million
TOTAL	$320
Members’ Representational Allowance	$146
Allowances and Expenses	$71
Salaries, Officers and Employees	$47
House Committees	$45
House Leadership Offices	$6
House Technical Support	$2
Attending Physician	$2
Miscellaneous	$0.4

This article only discussed the Members’ Representational Allowances. The Q3 disbursements totaled almost $146 million, while the Q3 year-to-date total was $406 million.   The yearly budget for all member’s allowances is about $656 million.

We hope this article will help others study the expenditures of the U.S. House.

Files to download

• Category summary files: ZIP file containing 69 separate CSV files, one for each category-description.
• House member files: ZIP file containing 492 separate CSV files, one for each member of the House.  This is a quick way to find data on a particular member of the House.
• Table of 2009 Q3 U.S. House Disbursements by Member by Category.
  Summary of expenditures by House members for each of nine categories.
  Three file formats: CSV • Excel • PDF
  [Note:  Includes disbursements for all years, not just the ones from the current quarter in the summary provided in the Statement of Disbursements.]
• Table of 2009 Q3 Year-to- Date U.S. House Disbursements by Member by Category.
  Summary of expenditures by House members for each of nine categories.
  Three file formats: CSV • Excel • PDF
• Members’ Representational Allowances: Excel • PDF • View at DocStoc

Future

The Watchdog will post technical blog entries on a variety of related topics in the near future:

• Technical notes about processing House disbursement data from the Sunlight Foundation, including R programs used to analyze data.
• Statistical ranges for typical expenditures by House members by nine categories for 2009 Q3 and 2009 Q3 YTD
• Histogram of House Disbursement Amounts
• Tag cloud of description fields for those receiving “Personnel Compensation”

Related

• Statement of Disbursements of the U.S. House of Representatives
• Statement of Disbursements at a Glance
• Glossary of Terms for Statement of Disbursements
• Searchable Database of House Expenditure Reports, Sunlight Foundation

• Sun Now Shines on Expenditures by Members of Congress, Kansas Watchdog, Dec. 2, 2009.
• U.S. Rep. King: Online statements of disbursements a victory for transparency, IowaPolitics.com, Dec 1, 2009.
• Web site shows what House members spend, Tulsa World, Dec 1, 2009.
• U.S. Congress Documents via Sunlight Labs: House Disbursements Now Online, Resource Shelf, Nov 30, 2009.
• In Monster Doc, House Spending Published Online, TPMMuckraker, Nov 30, 2009.
• House expenses go online, Washington Post, Nov 30, 2009.
• House Sheds Light on Member Expenses, OMBWatch, Nov 30, 2009.
• Pelosi Statement on Posting of Office Expenditures Online, PR Newswire, Nov 30, 2009.
• Speaker Pelosi orders new transparency for House members’ expenditures, Kansas Meadowlark, June 3, 2009.
• Speaker Pelosi Directs Statement of Disbursements Be Posted Online, The Gavel, June 3, 2009.

Acknowledgement
We would like to thank the Sunshine Foundation for providing the data from the Statement of Disbursements in a form that could be analyzed in a computer program.

Contact: Earl F Glynn, Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, earl@KansasWatchdog.org