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                                                          "People seldom improve when they have no other model
                                                          but themselves to copy after." -Oliver Goldsmith






                                   in an egalitarian body like Congress, where personal
                                   influence is tbe operative mechanism, there will inevita-
                                   bly emerge a pattem of individual self-interest prevailing
                                   over the collective responsibility.  Self-interest is tbe natu-
                                   ral end product of a political system that in virtually
                                   every way exalts individual self-aggrandizement over party
                                   and institutional responsibility.

                                        This outward manifestation of individual self-interest is
                                   expressed as privilege, which is defined by tbe Living Web-
                                   ster Encyclopedic Dictionary as, "a right, immunity, or bene-
                                   fit enjoyed by a particular person or a restricted group of
                                   persons beyond the common advantages of others . . ."
                                   The United States Congress, in its egregious preoccupa-
                                   tion with all things self-serving, has developed privileges
                                   of epic proportion.

                                        Whatever privilege Congress grants itself is ultimately
                                   paid for by the beleaguered United States taxpayers.
                                   Unable individually to redress tbe inequities of big gov-

                                                                 v

vi                       Congress:  America's  Privileged   Class

emment, taxpayers vote into office a champion to repre-
sent their interests in Washington and then despairingly
watch that champion become one of the enemy.

     The old adage that "power corrupts, and absolute
power corrupts absolutely" is exemplified to its fullest in
our capital city.  There, the Congress is unchallenged in
its control of the nation's purse strings and imperiously
rules over its own actions, which promotes pervasive and
perpetual corruption in government while insidiously
rigging tbe political system to guarantee lifetimejob ten-
ure.  Congress has become cavalier in rewarding itself
every conceivable privilege, indulgence, and exemption.
Congress is employed for the benefit and convenience of
its individual mem bers, certainly not for any larger pur-
pose.

     Congressional privilege is again under public attack
because of excessive and unconscionable abuses by mem-
bers.  Already some perks have been jettisoned, and con-
gressional leaders are being privately wamed that other
privileges are in danger of being axed.  The scandals are
taking their toll, and, for now at least, lawmakers can no
longer put off or ignore debts owed to their private res-
taurant, use congressional staffers to get their parking
tickets fixed, or kite a check at their private bank.

     Despite current public outrage, prevailing wisdom dic-
tates that, after the furor diminishes, it will be back to
business as usual.  According to consumer advocate Ralph
Nader, "fhe motto on Capitol Hill is, if you can get it,
grab it." Although some minor sacrifices may yet be
made to quell taxpayer indignation, no program of
bicameral reform is in place to curtail this pattem of
excessive, individual self-indulgence.

     Perhaps this book will spur tbe reform process by
informing tbe American public of the magnitude of con-
gressional abuse.  A public uninformed about tbe myriad
unseen and unwarranted benefits and privileges enjoyed
by mem bers of Congress at taxpayers' expense is a public

Preface                                                       vii

handicapped in tbe exercise of its responsibilities in tbe
voting booth.  This first condition must be corrected if we
are to redress intelligently the latter.

     Americans have a deep-seated antipathy toward any-
thing that smacks of special privileges for tbe favored few.
Although some of the services available to members of
Congress are necessary for them to effectively carry out
their official duties and responsibilities, the majority
grossly exceed those provided to the average working
American and must be dispensed with if public outrage is
to be extinguished.

     Only when every member of Congress understands
that public trust requires an effective and accountable
legislative body devoting its energy and interest to what
really matters-the unsolved problems on the nation's
agenda-will tbe public's perception of Congress as a
personal plaything for its members be eliminated.




The Perks and
Privileges of Rank



It is fair to state that many of the congressional perks
and privileges enjoyed by today's lawmakers were bom of
necessity during the early days (circa 1867) of Congress
in Washington, D.C. Back then tbe Capitol, isolated from
the center of Washington, could be reached only by a
long ride over muddy streets.  The majority of lawmakers
were forced to live in boarding houses, mostly without
indoor baths or conveniences.  Eating out was inconve-
nient and considered by many to be hazardous to their
health.

     Over tbe years Congress has proven more than equal
to the task of improving its conditions.  Ever conscious of
its prestigious position and general welfare, it has now
amassed a broad array of benefits and perquisites (perks)
for senators, House members, and their staffs that
enables them to live in the nation's capital in a relatively
fine, if not opulent, style.

     Problems with perks arise when lawmakers, never con-
tent with moderation, abuse their privileges.  For exam-
ple, few people begrudge government-provided postage

2    Congress: America's Privileged Class

"for official business," known as the congressional
"frank" (the privilege of mailing unlimited pieces of mail
to constituents at taxpayers' expense).  In addition to pro-
viding incumbents with a tremendous campaign advan-
tage, however, franking privileges cost taxpayers a stag-
gering $89.5 million in 1989, and tbe House "frank"
alone cost taxpayers nearly $73 million in 1990.

     Abuse of the franking privilege has been so great in
tbe past-members have mailed their laundry, china,
and bedding, and in one case even mailed a horse-that
both tbe House and tbe Senate are reported to be again
revising tbe franking guidelines to include stricter
accounting procedures and limits on tbe amount of mail
Congress can send to its constituents.

     A perk is defined as something additional to regular profit
or pay, resulting ftom one's Position or employment, especially
som thing customary or expected like a tip or gratuity.  It is a
p vilege or benefit to which a Person or institution is entitled by
virtue of status, Position, or the like: a perogative.*

     A perk ceases to be an advantage or a benefit when it is
perceived as unwarranted, unnecessary, or abuse of privi-
lege.  Congress takes great pains to keep the public in tbe
dark about the many benefits and privileges it enjoys at
taxpayers' expense.  However, public outrage has tumed
many a perk into a liability after congressional abuse
forced it into the spotlight.

     The allowances and services available to members of
Congress are outlined in tbe U.S. House of Representa-
tives Congressional Handbook and its Senate equivalent.
Commonly referred to as tbe "Green Book" because of
its green binder, it is generally unavailable to members of
tbe public.  It is one of tbe first items provided to fresh-
men members of Congress, who are encouraged by
senior members to make use of the benefits described

Source: Ttie (@oiigressioiial Accotintabilitv Project Report on Pay
and Pet-ks.

The Perks and Privileges of Rank                                3

therein to tbe fullest extent possible.  After all, tbe fresh-
men are now members of the most exclusive club in the
world and should fully enjoy everything attendant to
their new position.

     Many of the benefits discussed in this chapter-bene-
fits out of reach of tbe ordinary cifizen-are taken from
tbe Green Book and are representative of the dozens of
taxpayer-supported perquisites members of Congress
have enjoyed for years.

     Because Congress exempts itself from tbe Freedom of
Information Act and for obvious reasons is not enthusias-
tic about cooperating with a book of this nature, it is not
possible to guarantee that every perk has been listed.
However, thanks to tbe energies of numerous private
organizations and citizens' watchdog groups, plus tbe
efforts of private reporting agencies willing to share their
data, it is safe to assume that most perks (certainly tbe
more egregious) have been included.

     The follo@ng are not presented in any particular pri-
ority, although some effort has been made to group like
items in the same general area.




MEDICAL SERVICES

The Office of the Attending Physicians Service, tradition-
ally a Navy doctor with a staff of other doctors, nurses,
and medical technologists, is located in tbe Capitol to
address tbe special needs of the lawmakers.  The office
was established in 1928, when members were dying at an
alarming rate, many apparently from diseases related to
the capital environment-a condition not evident today.

     This office dispenses free medical advice and prescrip-
tion pharmaceuticals to lawmakers only.  Specialized ser-
vices include a medical response team; ambulance ser-
vice; a complete medical laboratory, x-ray, and pharmacy

4                          Congress: America's  Privileged  Class


service; free medical tests; free blood; and free
immunizafion and allergy injections.  Addifionally, for a
$400 (formerly $100) annual fee, senators and their
employees may use the Senate Health Club fitness cen-
ters, including a private gym where they can use the
swimming pools and weight rooms and receive massages.
The recent public outrage over congressional perks
forced Congress to impose a $520 annual fee on mem-
bers who continue to use the services of the Capitol phy-
sician.  This fee is in addition to the charges now paid by
members for private health insurance.  This fee, however,
is substantially less than the $652 deductible that Medi-
care users are required to pay each benefit period.

     God forbid you should suffer a medical misfortune
while visiting the Capitol, because you would be shocked
to leam that you are not entitled to treatment, even
emergency services, at the Office of the Attending Physi-
cians Service.  It's strictly for members only-ordinary cit-
izens need not apply, even though it is paid for by your
tax dollars.



INSURANCE BENEFITS

Additionally, all members of Congress are eligible to par-
ticipate in the Federal Employees Health program.

     A basic life-insurance policy for $99,000 is provided to
all members of the House of Representatives, and sena-
tors receive basic life insurance of $101,000.  Taxpayers
pick up one-third of the premium costs.



HOUSING BENEFITS

Members of Congress have not neglected themselves
when it comes to housing.  They voted themselves a spe-

The Perks and Privileges of Rank                                5


cial tax deducfion of up to $3,000 per year for living
expenses while they're away from their congressional dis-
trict or home state.




COMFORTS AWAY FROM HOME

To make life more enjoyable while in Washington serving
their constituencies from afar, Congress has prescribed
themselves a number of painkillers.  The following list
describes many privileges members of Congress feel are
essential to doing theirjob without undue stress:

     Special orange license plates permit parking virtually
     anywhere in the District of Columbia "while on busi-
     ness." Until recently, if a House member received a
     ticket (double-parking outside a Washington night
     spot at 2 A.M., for example), the House Sergeant At
     Arms would get it "fixed" for him.  Now, however, he
     has to get it fixed by a personal staff member.

     Free parking at special parking lots located next to
     the terminals at Washington National and Dulles air-
     ports and the Union Rail Station is provided to mem-
     bers of Congress.  What if members of Congress need
     a ride home from the airport? Theyjust charge the
     taxi fare to the Federal Deficit.

     Each representative and senator is provided with one
     free garage space for personal use, Each representa-
     tive is also provided with four garage spaces and two
     outside spaces for staff members; and each senator is
     assigned three inside spaces for senior staff aides,
     plus outdoor spaces as required.  The General Ser-
     vices Administration (GSA) provides one parking
     space for senators in each home state office in a fed-
     erally owned or leased building.

6    Congress: America's Privileged Class

∙    Members may get their car hand-washed at the Capi-
     tol for a special $3 discounted rate.  The average cost
     elsewhere in Washington is between $10 and $14.

∙    Members may lease automobiles on a long-term
     basis for carrying out their official duties.  It should
     not surprise anyone that the lease terms are extraor-
     dinarily generous.

∙    Members have free use of the House recording stu-
     dio to produce radio and TV spots for distribution as
     public-service announcements to commercial sta-
     tions serving their home district.  They also receive
     free satellite service for radio and TV transmissions.

∙     Speaking of communications, members are also enti-
     tled to two WATS access phone lines in their Wash-
     ington residence. (Representatives who choose
     unlimited WATS lines receive half the long-distance
     allowance.) Each member may also access one Fed-
     eral Telephone System (FTS) line for unlimited long-
     distance calling after business hours and on holidays
     and weekends.

∙    If the purpose of an event is to "discuss matters relat-
     ing to official duties with a person other than mem-
     bers or staff," any food or beverage expense
     incurred by the member and his or her employees is
     reimbursable.

*    Flags that have flown over the Capitol are available
     free to members to be given as gifts.

*    All expenses, including framing, for reproducing a
     member's photograph for distribution to the media
     and constituents are reimbursable.

*    Members receive discounted ($5, formerly free) hair-
     cuts, manicures, shoeshines, and shoe repairs at the
     Senate and House barber and beauty shops located
     in the Senate and House office buildings.

The Perks and Privileges of Rank                             7


∙    Members and their families may borrow materials
     for personal use from the Library of Congress.
     Other United States citizens are forbidden to borrow
     these same materials.

∙    Members may request special research projects from
     the Library of Congress.  The public may not.

∙    Members may borrow framed reproductions of paint-
     ings and prints from the National Gallery of Art for
     display in their office.  The public? You guessed it!

-    Members and their staff members may shop at their
     own discount general store, where taxpayer-subsi-
     dized merchandise is nominally priced.  Both the Sen-
     ate and the House recently decided to eliminate
     some fancy gift items, which instead will be sold with
     souvenirs in a gift shop open to the public. just
     before this decision was made, staff aides anticipated
     such a move and literally stormed the store to buy
     expensive Mont Blanc pens, crystal candlesticks, and
     leather wallets at 5 percent above the store's whole-
     sale cost.  It is amazing that anything was left for the
     general public.

∙    Members, their staff members, and guests eat subsi-
     dized meals from congressional restaurants.  Until
     October 1991, they were allowed to run a tab for
     their meals.  That year some tabs exceeded $300,000
     and in many cases were taking years to be paid
     (many members were never billed at all).  Members
     now have a pay-as-you-eat plan.  Another recent
     money-saving change will reduce the serving hours
     of the Senate restaurants from 8 A.M. to 3:30 Pm.  The
     basement snack bar will have to suffice for evening
     dining.

oIn  the  former  House  post  office,  State   Department
 staff aides are available  to  members  to  expedite  the

8                          Congress: America's Privileged Class


     free processing of passport applications.  Processing
     for the general public, however, continues to take
     the usual two weeks and cost $75.

∙    The Postal Service provides special handling of
     "orange bag" franked mail that ensures members a
     special one-day delivery service.

*    Being catered to achieves its most conspicuous dis-
     play when Capitol police regularly clear a path
     through crowds as lawmakers stride down a hall.  Spe-
     cial operator-assisted "Members Only" elevators are
     reserved for their use.  Guards also hold subway cars
     for them, as they would do for any "King of the Hill."

∙    Ordinary citizens struggle each year with the intrica-
     cies, obfuscations, and legalistic mumbojumbo of
     their annual federal income-tax forms.  And most
     people generally pay dearly to have their tax retums
     prepared by a tax professional.  Members, on the
     other hand, have a special Capitol IRS office to
     assist in the preparation of their retums.

∙    Congress, on the off-chance that a war might be
     fought within the United States proper, has con-
     structed for itself a top-secret bunker capable of with-
     standing the most powerful nuclear blast.  It spends
     many millions of dollars keeping this facility in a per-
     fect state of readiness even today, after the dissolu-
     tion of the Soviet Union has tumed the specter of
     nuclear warfare into the most remote possibility.  It
     goes without saying that in the event of a nuclear
     attack, private citizens, even if they could find the
     place, need not apply for admission. (And if I were a
     member of the minority party, I wouldn't breathe
     easy until I were safely inside.)

The Perks and Privileges of Rank                               9


BANKING PRJVILEGES

Until October 1991, the House bank, run by the Ser-
geant At Arms, was used by all 440 members of the
House of Representatives and its delegates.  Much like
commercial banks, the House bank (located on the first
floor of the Capitol) took deposits, issued checkbooks
and monthly statements, and cashed checks, both its own
and those written on other banks.  To conduct those
transactions, it maintained an average daily balance of
more than $1 million.  Only House members were per-
mitted to use these services.  Unlike a commercial bank,
the House bank provided free "overdraft" protection,
honoring checks even if the account had insufficient
funds.

     In an age of automatic teller machines and computer-
ized check clearing, the now-closed House bank was a
financial anachronism relying on hand-written records,
eas@going informality, and unquestioning service to its
only account holders-members of Congress.

     Operating since the early 1800s, none of the bank's
rules was in writing and none of its staff, including the
patronage-appointed House Sergeant At Arms, was a
trained banker.  The bank was not federally insured, paid
no interest on checking accounts, and made no loans,
but it is claimed that no taxpayer funds were involved in
its operation.  One can quesfion, however, who paid the
employee salaries and who bought its equipment (com-
puters, for example).



SCANDAL IN THE HOUSE BANK

In the long and celebrated history of Congress, no tradi-
tion at the House bank is more firmly established than
scandal.

10                         (congress: America's Privileged  Class

     In 1839, a cashier and his mistress, a local prostitute,
made off with the Hotise payroll ($75,000), never to be
heard from again.  Because deposit insurance was
Linheard of at the time, a wrenching debate ensued over
whether the lost salaries should be reimbursed from the
Treasury, which in today's currency would be more than
$1 million.  Rising to the occasion, Congress paid every-
one back.  Never let it be said that the members do not
take care of their own.

     In 1947, the House Sergeant At Arms was imprisoned
for one year after trying to cover up a series of embezzlc-
ments from members' accounts' going back 20 years.
Some of the proceeds had been used by a Florida con-
gressman and his business partner to finance the
congressman's campaigns and to speculate in losing real
estate ventures.  Swamplands, anyone?

     Even after that scandal, abuses at the Housc bank were
winked at with regularity.  From 1832 to the present, lead-
ers of the House ' have been regularly informed of over-
drafts.  None ever chose to end the practice, even after
the HOLIse debated the propriety of the government's
adN,ancing pay to representatives without charging inter-
est.

     Audit reports prepared more than 30 years ago by the
General Accounting Office (GAO) and made public dur-
ing the current scandal show that one-third of the
members' accounts had been overdrawn in the 1950s!

     By 1972, the GAO found that 12,309 checks had been
overdrawn; four years later, the number was 18,428.
These overdrafts were referred to in the report, but
mainly in pallid footnotes that all but obscured the depth
of the problem.

     What looked like a bank, called itself a bank, and in
man ;, respects acted like a bank was in reality a "cash

club   in   which   House   members   could,   and   often   did,

The Perks and Privileges of Rank                               11


write checks with impunity, regardless of whether they
had enough funds to cover them.

     More than two-thirds of House members regularly
overdrew their accounts, and it has been reported that
some were even cashing checks at the House post office,
a practice forbidden by federal law.

     A popular defense is that this bank wasn't really a
bank, and that its record keeping was lackadaisical-hap-
hazard at best.  Certainly, it was a murky little financial
institution, even by today's standards.  However, what
must be accepted is that this is exactly what the members
wanted.  For decades it existed just for the convenience of
the House (whatever the Senate has is still a mystery),
dispensing free checks and, in essence, free cash
advances that often became free long-term loans.  It
wasn't a bank, though-it was a pot of gold.

     True to form, House members could not practice
restraint, and when 134 House members kited more than
8,300 checks in 1991, the lasagna hit the fan.

     An Ethics Committee audit disclosed that during a 39-
month period, 325 current and former House members
had written more than 24,000 overdrafts at the now scan-
dal-plagued House bank.  They identified as "worst"
offenders 22 members who wrote 11,424 overdrafts for
more than $4.5 million.

     According to the House Ethics Committee's dubious
standards, the other 303 members were not labeled
11 abusers" because "an abuser is defined as one whose


overdrafts exceeded their monthly pay at least nine times
in the 39-month period examined." Thus if members
exceeded their monthly income only eight times or
spread out overdrafts over only 40 months, the Ethics
Committee could not bring itself to label them as abus-
ers.  This is despite the fact that some deliberately over-
xdrew their accounts to make interest-free loans to their

12                        Congress: America's Privileged  Class

own reelection campaigns.  One irate House member
publicly complained, "these people were getting very
large interest-ff-ee loans . . . because they were members
of Congress . . . They were doing something they knew
was wrong."

     Of potentially more serious consequence is the disclo-
sure that some House members were improperly
exchanging postage vouchers for cash.  House records
disclose that these members have engaged in extraordi-
nary cash transactions totaling tens of thousands of dol-
lars over the past five years.

     These vouchers, which are essentially purchase orders
drawn on the office accounts of members, are used to
buy goods and services "for official purposes" from vari-
ous congressional facilities.  Knowingly converting these
funds to personal use constitutes a criminal act more
popularly known as "embezzlement."

     These allegations have attracted the attention of the
justice Department, and federal prosecutors are investi-
gating this matter.