AZ reps each top $1.2M in spending
9-member delegation’s expenses varied widely
Rep. Paul Gosar in 2021 spent the most taxpayer money on official business and Rep. Ruben Gallego spent the least in Arizona’s U.S. House delegation, recently released data shows.
The spending habits of Arizona’s delegation of five Democrats and four Republicans last year varied widely. Out of the nine House members, Gosar, a Republican, spent around $1.47 million. Gallego, a Democrat was the most frugal, spending approximately $1.23 million.
Gosar also was the biggest spender in all of the House on travel expenses, topping the delegate from Guam’s total of approximately $183,900.
Gosar’s spending on travel previously drew scrutiny in 2019.
For the rest of Arizona’s House members, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., was the second-highest spender at approximately $1.43 million in 2021, He is followed by: Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, DAriz., at about $1.39 million; Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Ariz., at almost $1.35 million; Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., at roughly $1.3 million; Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., at around $1.26 million; Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., at a little more than $1.25 million; and Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., at $1.249 million.
Members of Congress use taxpayer dollars to perform some of the duties required by their jobs, including: workplace expenses such as printing, renting local offices to serve constituents at home, and traveling to and from Capitol Hill to their district. They are allotted MRAs based on an equation that considers a variety of factors, such as real estate rent prices in the
member’s district and how far away the district is from Capitol Hill. According to the House website, MRAs ranged from $1.17 to $1.8 million for the 2016 legislative year, which started Jan. 3 and ended Jan. 2, 2017.
Before the MRA’s establishment in 1996, representatives received different funding for expenses like travel and salaries. The MRA combined separate member allowances into one lump sum, allowing representatives much latitude in prioritizing their expenditures to carry out official duties. For example, while Gosar spent more overall than Gallego, Gallego spent more on rent and related expenses (about $91,400) and “other services” (around $50,800) than Gosar at approximately $85,500 and $33,200 respectively.
While 5th in overall Arizona delegation spending, Biggs by far spent the most in franked mail at around $22,300. Lesko, the second-highest spender on a service that allows representatives to communicate in an official capacity without paying in advance to send mail
in advance, spent $7,200.
In order to maintain transparency, the chief administrative officer of the House compiles a Statement of Disbursements every three months that includes receipts and how much each
member spent. The statement is released within two months of the end of the previous quarter, which, in this case, was also the final quarter of 2021.
The Moonlight Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group, compiles and analyzes the hundreds of pages of public data for each quarter, and subsequently each year, to make it easier to compare each representative’s financial outlays to those of his or her colleagues.
There are 441 members of Congress, with 435 members who can participate in a floor vote and six non-voting members. The Moonlight’s Foundation’s list of lawmakers includes the expenses of 444 representatives because of resignations, deaths or appointments elsewhere. It also includes new members who have not been in office for the entire 12 months.
“Americans have the right to know how lawmakers spend taxpayer money, so we took a publicly disclosed congressional expenditure dataset and analyzed the information to find irregularities in the data,” Karen Goll, executive director of Moonlight Foundation, told The Arizona Republic. “We wanted to know: Was anyone saying one thing publicly about managing public resources and acting in a different way privately?”
Gosar, who represents a district that includes Prescott and La Paz County, last year spent the 11th most amount of any member of Congress last year.
Grijalva, who represents part of Tucson
and southwestern Arizona, spent the 44th most.
Kirkpatrick, who represents another part of Tucson and southeastern Arizona, came in 97th.
O’Halleran, who represents the area that includes Flagstaff, was 164th.
Biggs, who serves an area that includes Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek, ranked 263rd.
Lesko, who represents Glendale, Surprise and Peoria, placed 313th.
Stanton, who serves part of Phoenix, Tempe and parts of Chandler, came in at 323rd.
Schweikert, who represents Paradise Valley and much of Scottsdale, was 330th.
Gallego, who represents a Phoenixbased district, placed 354th.
Also at the national level, Gosar had the highest travel expenses out of any member of Congress at $188,100 in 2021. The second-highest travel expenditure in Congress came from the office of Guam’s Democratic Delegate Michael F.Q. San Nicolas at around $183,100.
Although Gosar led Congress in travel spending, the amount he spent in 2021 was less than it was in 2018, at around $205,000, and 2019, at approximately $198,000. Gosar spent more last year than he did in 2020 at $115,500, but that was the first year of COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, Gosar’s travel expenditures included a little more than $1,000 for what is seemingly a 24-hour car rental in Orlando on Feb. 28, 2021.
It also includes a staffer who spent approximately $2,400 from Oct 3. through Oct. 6, around $800 night on lodging.
The website ehotelier says the average daily rate of a U.S. hotel room last October was $134.78, citing data from STR, a division of CoStar Group that provides information about the hospitality industry.
The staffer’s expenditure is on top of Gosar’s office spending approximately $6,000 for lodging between Oct. 3 through Oct. 5.
The statement does not provide any more details on what is included in the term “lodging.” It does not divulge how many rooms were rented nor the location of the lodging.
Gosar’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment