House members handed out bonuses to staffs during budget crisis

Defeated and retiring lawmakers paid an average bonus of about $4,000. Returning lawmakers paid an average $2,300.

Reporting from Washington — Even as deep federal budget cuts loomed at the end of last year, members of Congress from both parties paid taxpayer-funded bonuses to their staffs.

Overall, House members spent about $21.5 million more on their office payrolls for the fourth quarter of 2010, when bonuses are traditionally paid, than they spent for the average of the three previous quarters, according to LegiStorm, a Washington group that tracks congressional pay.

Defeated and retiring lawmakers paid an average bonus of about $4,000. Returning lawmakers paid an average $2,300, the group found.

The money came out of the average $1.5 million allocated to each office for expenses including salaries, travel and bottled water purchases — money that, if unspent at the end of the year, goes back to the Treasury. Some lawmakers have boasted of sending leftover funds from their office budgets to the Treasury to show their frugal ways.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-congress-bonus-20110525,0,7990945.story