What you paid
Last week, taxpayers spent roughly $107 million on Congress.
Salaries of Members of Congress and their allowances/week:
Speaker of the House: $223,500/52 = $4,299
House and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders: ($193,400/52) x 4 = $14,877
Other Representatives and Senators: ($174,000/52) x 530 = $1,773,462
Allowance for staff salaries and misc: ($1,500,000/52) x 535 = $15,432,692
Non-salary money allocated for Congress: $4.656 billion/52 = $89,538,462
What you got
The House passed 8 bills or resolutions costing approximately $225 million over five years:
Puerto Rico Democracy Act. COST: $0
Implementing Management for Performance and Related Reforms to Obtain Value in Every Acquisition Act of 2010. COST: $250 MILLION
Providing that Members of Congress shall not receive a cost of living adjustment in pay during fiscal year 2011. SAVE: $856,000: based on estimate each of the 535 members would receive a $1,600 pay increase)
Rural Housing Preservation and Stabilization Act. SAVE: $24 MILLION IN 2010
Designating April 18-April 23, 2010 National Assistant Principals Week. COST: $0
Naming the Steve Goodman Post Office Building. COST: $0
Celebrating the life of Sam Houston. COST: $0
Naming the Anthony J. Cortese Post Office Building. COST: $0
The Senate did not pass any legislation or confirm any judicial or executive branch nominees, but did invoke cloture (a motion to cut off debate) on financial regulatory reform.
Please leave a comment indicating whether you believe you did or did not get your money’s worth from Congress last week.
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