Ostensibly it’s because he has three young kids and needs to save, but rent in D.C. can’t be that bad. Lots of good rhetoric here supporting what is, ultimately, a stunt. Or is it?
No one knows how many members have their offices do double duty as residences. Neither the Committee on House Administration nor the Office of the House Chief Administrative Officer keeps a list. Nor does the sergeant-at-arms’ office, which might be interested in knowing which offices contained sleeping members if there were an emergency on the Hill.
Outgoing Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) told the Gannett News Service in 2007 that, based on what he saw in the health club each morning, as many as 40 other congressmen sleep in their offices. Members and their office staffers aren’t so keen on giving out names, and no offices would confess to knowing who or how many are asleep near their desks.
Upwards of 10 percent of the House actually lives in the House? What on earth for? God help me for suggesting it, but … do we need to give Congress a cost-of-living raise? Build ’em a dorm? Create a tent city on the Mall, replete with Nancy leading the troops in campfire songs? There has to be a better way.
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