The House and Senate were in session last week. As noted below, neither chamber was very active. Fiscal cliff negotiations continued, but little progress was made during the work week. Last night USA Today reported, “In talks with President Obama, Republican House Speaker John Boehner offered to back raising the income tax rates for people making $1 million or more if Obama agreed to significant cuts in entitlement program spending, according to two sources close to the negotiations.”

What you paid

Last week taxpayers spent roughly $100 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

Average weekly budget for all House offices: ($1,446,009/52) x 435 = $2,096,421

Average weekly budget for all Senate offices: ($3,409,093/52) x 100 = $6,555,958

Non-salary money allocated for Congress: $4.656 billion/52 = $89,538,462

What you got

The House voted to pass two bills:

• H.R. 4053, To intensify efforts to identify, prevent, and recover payment error, waste, fraud, and abuse within Federal spending. SAVINGS: Unknown
• H.R. 6190, Asthma Inhalers Relief Act. COST: None

The Senate confirmed Lorna G. Schofield and John E. Dowdell to be district court judges.