The House and Senate were both in session last week. The Senate did not pass any legislation. The House’s primary focus was on H.R. 444, the PLAN Act. The legislation requires the president to outline specific ideas for balancing the budget in ten years if his fiscal year 2014 budget plan does not. The House passed the legislation 253 to 167. One Republican voted against the bill while 166 Democrats did.

 

What you paid

Last week taxpayers spent roughly $81.7 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: ($1,353,205/52) x 435 = $11,320,080

Average weekly budget for all Senate offices: ($3,209,103/52) x 100 = $6,171,351

Non-salary money allocated for Congress (FY 2012 legislative branch appropriations – $4.307 billion – less $970.1 million for members’ office allowances and $93.2 million for member salaries): $3.244 billion/52 = $62,384,615

 

What you got

In addition to the vote noted above, the House voted to pass two bills that would cost taxpayers more than $1.4 billion over five years:

• H.R. 297, To amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize support for graduate medical education programs in children’s hospitals. COST: $1.4 billion over five years
• H.R. 225, To amend title IV of the Public Health Service Act to provide for a National Pediatric Research Network, including with respect to pediatric rare diseases or conditions. COST: $1 million over five years

 

The Senate began work on a bill that would reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994.