By House lawmakers expensed at least $2.5 million under a program that allows them to be reimbursed for their spending without submitting receipts through the first five months of 2024, over $120,000 more than they expensed during the same period last year, according to data released by the House as of Oct. 9 and analyzed by The Washington Post.
Created at the end of 2022, the program allows House members to use taxpayer funds to reimburse themselves for some lodging, meals and incidental costs while they are in D.C. on official business. It was intended to help members offset the costs of maintaining two households without requiring them to give themselves a politically toxic raise.
But critics of the expense program have argued that its lack of receipt requirements and reliance on the honor system open it up for abuse, and expenses have risen for 2024 despite public scrutiny of last year’s spending. The data released by the House is sourced from expense information submitted by individual congressional offices, which can potentially contain errors or be corrected later. The data that The Post reviewed for this article is probably the last major data release before next month’s elections.
The program’s top spenders in the first five months of 2024 include Reps. Jim Baird (R-Ind.), who spent a little over $22,000, and Veronica Escobar (D-Tex.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) and Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), who all spent more than $16,000.
The program has only a few strict rules, including that members cannot seek reimbursement for more than their actual expenses. They also cannot be repaid for principal or interest on their mortgages and can get reimbursement only for days they’re actually working in D.C. or flying to the city. Misuse of taxpayer funds under the members’ allowance could violate not just House rules but also federal law.
Mace, one of the program’s top spenders in 2023, came under scrutiny after former staffers alleged to The Post earlier this year that she misused the program by seeking reimbursements that were higher than her actual expenses. Mace, who owns 28 percent of a Capitol Hill townhouse with her ex-fiancé Patrick Bryant, is still a top spender. But the $12,180 she expensed for lodging in the first five months of 2024 is roughly $1,500 less than her spending on lodging during the same period in 2023.
The South Carolina Republican racked up a total of $27,817 in lodging expenses in 2023 — an average of more than $2,300 a month. The Post previously reported that Mace was told by people involved with her office finances that she could not justify claiming more than about $1,800 a month for expenses on the townhouse under the rules of the program. In the first five months of 2024, Mace received reimbursements averaging more than $2,400 per month for lodging expenses.
“We follow all the rules for reimbursements,” a spokesperson for Mace said in an emailed statement, declining to answer whether Mace was utilizing the program to pay off her mortgage.
A constituent filed an ethics complaint in June with the Office of Congressional Ethics requesting the South Carolina lawmaker be investigated for “unlawfully” seeking and receiving reimbursements that exceed her monthly expenses, demanding that she be “formally reprimanded,” Punchbowl News reported at the time.
“Although there are few restrictions on the actions of Members under the House reimbursement program, the restrictions that do exist should be vigorously enforced,” the complainant, whose name was redacted from the filing, added.
Neither the Office of Congressional Ethics, the nonpartisan and independent entity charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against House members, nor the House Committee on Ethics, members’ own watchdog, would comment on whether there are ongoing investigations into Mace’s spending. But people familiar with the matter say that congressional ethics officials are paying close attention to members’ use of the expense program. After The Post initially reported on members’ use of the program, a House official sent an email reminding lawmakers that they could face criminal prosecution for lying about expenses.
In 2023, more than two dozen members of Congress received payments of at least $30,000 on top of their $174,000 base salaries as a part of the program, which was approved on a bipartisan basis in late 2022. In June, The Post created a database of members’ 2023 spending to help the public better understand how lawmakers are using the program.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the program’s second-ranking spender in 2023 after Bergman, has cut down on his spending: The Florida lawmaker spent $23,106 in the first five months of 2023 compared with $14,092 through May of this year — a $9,014 decrease.
Members expensed roughly $70,000 more on food expenses in the first five months of 2024 than they did over the same period in 2025. And a handful of members opted into the program this year who did not participate last year.
Baird expensed more than $5,600 on food during the first five months of the year; Barragán expensed roughly $4,700; and Mace expensed roughly $4,443.
Some House staffers involved with administering the program have been especially critical of the lack of transparency around reimbursements for food, noting that members receive free food in the course of their jobs on Capitol Hill.
“Members get free food all the time — the cloakrooms and committees always have food,” said one person involved with the program, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. “A hearing that starts at 10 a.m. and goes through lunch serves food. So a member claiming a full meal deduction raises eyebrows.”
But a member argued that most of the events lawmakers attend in the course of business in Washington offer only hors d’oeuvres, and that many of those attending galas and banquets that do have full meals leave before dinner is served.
“You could find at least a few events a week to attend but you’d get reimbursed for dinner anyway so why sit through a long dinner with strangers unless you just don’t want to spend the money and then get reimbursed?” the member, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss unflattering habits of lawmakers on Capitol Hill, told The Post.
