Congressional Transparency Reveals… the New Watergate?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made good on her promise to put congressional spending records online for the first time ever. Score one for transparency in government!
As long as a Representative stays within the guidelines, they have broad latitude about how to spend their alloted money.
At first glance the report is a bit overwhelming, and to the lay person there are many items that remain mysterious despite this new found transparency. What is “Franked Mail” for instance? What is the difference between “printing/reproduction” and “photographic transfer?” (shrug) But there is something in the vast list, that appears on every single representative’s cost breakdown, to which we can all relate. I speak of bottled water.
Strange to have that as its own line item, thought I. Why not put it in with Food/Beverages? Surely, water is a beverage, isn’t it? Then I began to wonder. What doesa typical U.S. Representative spend on bottled water every year? They probably have those giant water bottle dispensers in the office and that’s where the expense comes from, I thought. So they’re probably all pretty close to the same amount. But I saw that some of the line items for bottled water were in the amount of $2.00, the cost of a single serving bottle. Hmm. Maybe this was more complex than I originally anticipated.
So, I decided I’d hold an impromptu “watergate” investigation, if you will. I’d pick 5 prominent Republicans and 5 prominent Democrats and just for fun, I’d see how much they spent on bottled water. The following is a yearly projection based on the quarterly amounts posted in the report. I mean, we’ve got to have fun with all this new-found transparency, right?
I chose the names of those to be audited before I calculated their bottled water expenditures. I picked them based on name recognition…all except for Bob Goodlatte. He’s a Republican from Virginia, and I figures a Republican named “Good latte” must get his fair share of ribbing about beverages. Kind of like a liberal representative from Massachusetts named Billy Redmeat. I wondered how much bottled water a Goodlatte might consume.
Here is the breakdown.
Democrats:
Barney Frank $368/yr
Dennis Kucinich $795/yr
John Conyers $816/yr
Alan Grayson $1217/yr
Nancy Pelosi $2052/yr (Holy cow!)
Knowing how much Alaska Republican Don Young loves to rail on “Nancy Paloosi” (as he calls her for some inexplicable reason), he’ll probably have a heyday over her $2k+ bottled water bill.
Republicans:
Bob Goodlatte $733/yr (Yeah, but what’s his latte bill?)
Michele Bachmann $790/yr
John Boehner $1376/yr
Ron Paul $2571/yr (Yikes!)
and finally…
Don Young $3011/yr!!!
And we have a winner! For my randomly chosen top 10 representatives, Don Young is #1 for bottled water consumption at three THOUSAND eleven dollars a year, outspending Barney Frank almost 10:1! That’s a lotta H2O.
Interestingly, in my sample group, Republicans spent 62% more money on bottled water ($1696/year) than Democrats ($1049/yr). Theories are welcome.
If I had a team of researchers here at Mudflats Central, I might set them to the task of figuring out if Young is #1 for the entire House of Representatives, or which party spends more on bottled water and by how much. But alas, this staff of one isn’t up to the task.
So, feel free, if this sort of “fun with transparency” appeals to you, to click HERE, look in the large box and find the listing under each volume for “Member Offices” which will show you the alphabetical range included in each volume. Then click the appropriate one, scroll down until you find your rep (names in tiny print on the left). Add up the bottled water expenditures (usually about 8 or 9 lines) and multiply by 4 to get the yearly projection. Then share your findings in the comments!
Alaska has thrown down the gauntlet. See if your district can dethrone the King of Bottled Water – Don Young! Or perhaps you’ll have an even more dehydrated representative than the frugal Barney Frank! (Hey, does he have anything to do with “Franked Mail?”)
For information on “Franked Mail” see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franking
Now you KNOW this will get back to Shamitty and he’ll have a field day with Pelosi’s consumption rate, completely ignoring Ron Pauls’ and Don Youngs’. “Democrats Squander House H2O… Nancy Pelosi Is Full Of It’…
…in 3…2…1…
ps… am I the first?
Now if these guys continue to say there are not environmental problems, why are they not drinking tap water?
Yikes. I hope Congress recycles. Didn’t anyone look at the public water testing results? Most city/public water systems are healthier than bottled- which are usually tap water prettied up. (Denver’s water purity is one of the best.) Then there is the BPA leaching into H2O, waiting to go past the lips…ok, I’m creeping myself out.
Headed for coffee-
OT: GMA just had a piece on Palin’s “Air-Bus Tour”…heh heh. good one.
Open thread stays active all day for o/t posts! :0) AKM
Eyeonyou – Thank you for the link. Makes sense.
My rep., Peter Welch is an average user – $929.56 per year.
“Bottled water” is as close to the truth as, “hiking the Appalachian Trail.”
Shoot I went ‘here’ and couldn’t find any individual members names. Then again I didn’t go through every flippin page as I have an appt.
I have not done the math, but I am sure the Republicans spend more on bottled water than the Democrats. Why, you ask? Because a good Blue Blooded Democrat learned to turn on a tap as a toddler. The Republicans waited for nanny to do it.
Where I live here in FL, the water may be clean, but it just smells rather odd. Got a water filter pitcher system and that seems to do the trick. Much cheaper than buying gallons upon gallons at the stores. At least I don’t have to hold my nose now when I drink it! As more salt water creeps into the aquifer here, they keep drilling wells inland further west. The issue with THAT is, we’re getting closer to the swamplands. Kind of like being damned if we do and damned if we don’t. In the not-to-distant future, fresh water may have to be piped to us from the northern part of the state.
I was on a more conservative blog yesterday & someone brought up the point “DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH PELOSI SPENDS ON WATER???!!!!!?????”
I just blew it off, another Pelosi is bad story. Thanks AKM for posting the real #’s.
I can’t believe someone beat me to it! I hope you go back and share Don Young’s numbers!
AKM
Please read here about the environmental costs of bottled water.
http://www.tappening.com/
Don Young consumes 4. something bottles a day at 365 days a year. Now the question is; how many days is congress in session?
Thirsty Congressman Bill Shuster (R) PA 9th District $3161.72
From my experience with “bottled water” in a congressional office, it’s mostly the 5 gallon cooler variety rather than the 19 oz plastic bottles found on grocery shelves. It’s the details that are missing. Either way, yon dung sure needs a few gallons to keep the beetles away.
Bill Shuster. grrrrrr… he’s not half the man his father was. Nepotism at its worst.
I believe “Franked Mail” refers to the free (or incredibly discounted) postal rates member of Congress get for the purposes of communicating to their constituencies. At one time these “franking privileges” were unlimited. It may not be used for campaigning.
Interesting line of ‘looking at-into’ here. I went on a search n read..as to a dust-up between the Mother Jones and Fiji water production. I came out..on the side I didn’t think I would. I LOVE reading..in depth.
My little story on “franked mail”:
I used to work for an elderly and retired attorney who often sent us on hunts for obscure items. When he told me he needed to go to the post office for franked envelopes, I thought I was humoring him by driving him to the P.O. for that purpose. The postal clerk was totally flummoxed by his request, but Earl insisted. Two other employees were consulted before one of them went somewhere to “the back” and returned with envelopes embossed with what looked like a postage stamp. Oh.
Then, every spring at tax-time we’d have another hunt for “columnar paper”. Which is just what it reads like, but clerks everywhere scratched their heads.
I’m sure that Don Young, being the humanitarian that he is, bought & shipped the water back to Alaska for the benefit of Alaskans who have been struggling to eat & keep warm. At least he’ll keep them hydrated. And, being the low-key person he is, this was all done without fanfare. Too. Also.
Guess these politicans have not learned how to “cut” corners.
While traveling in Europe, I carried a water bottle , which I filled with tap water.
I didn’t see many public fountains, and eating places were very conservitive in providing water at the table.
Well , we know that Don Young is a douche bag. So WHAT does he do with all that water ???
I’m going to guess that the amount of water consumed per congressperson may be proportionate to the number of visitors that come to their offices. When I went to DC in April to visit with several different representatives, we were offered water–both bottled and from the big bottle coolers–at every single meeting.
With Don Young, perhaps that includes FBI visits?
anybody else wondering how much they spent on booze?
And, if I remember correctly, Barney Frank’s aide did not offer me any water! lol!
Someone might like to take a look at mail franking. In Canada it’s a political game that we all notice, because it makes for overflowing wastebaskets in our post offices. MPs (Representatives in the US) can send out 4 free newsletters to their ridings each year. In addition, they can send out free mail any time to any riding in Canada, provided that it has no more pieces than 10% of their riding’s voters and the mailing is “new” -substantially different in content from previous mailings. So 10 MPs can pool their 10% quotas for 100% and carpetbomb any specific riding in Canada whose MP has pissed them off.
“All the parties do it, but the Conservatives [Harper's minority] have taken to it with zeal: Adding up the costs, the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir found that MPs with the minority Conservatives spent $6.3-million on the mailers, while opposition MPs spent $3.8-million.
The average Conservative spent $38,337, including eight who spent more than $80,000, while the average opposition MP spent $17,977. Ontario Conservative Rick Norlock topped the list at $87,749.”
See this article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tory-mps-assailed-over-mailing-costs/article1365837/
Of course nobody should be drinking bottled water inside the USA unless there is a contamination emergency. Filtered tap water is the same as bottled.
When you look at a bottle of water, imagine the bottom quarter of the bottle as oil, that is how much energy/fuel it takes to get that bottle processed for your consumption.
My guess is that Speaker Pelosi has a lot of meetings where her staff offers water to the guests. What’s Yon Dung’s excuse? Giving it away to his oil co cronies?
After two years in the Peace Corps in Central America back in the 70′s, and repeated trips back to the region over the years, I am MORE than happy to drink tap water out of any sink in the United States. I never take clean, potable water out of the faucet for granted. Cheers!
Haven’t these guys heard of water filters like Pur? Sheesh!
What a bunch of wimps. Drink the tap water and stop polluting the earth by buying water in indestructable plastic bottles which end up floating in the Texas-sized garbage island in the Pacific. Start setting GOOD EXAMPLES, politicians. Totally hopeless.
My little franking story …
Many years ago when I was a registered independent I would get franked mail from Don Young, most of which danced very close to the line of campaigning, which is not allowed. One day I had some time on my hands, so I responded to his survey asking what I considered the most important issue facing the nation. My answer? Abuse of the franking privilege by members of Congress. And I never got another letter from Don Young.
If Don Young worked 365 days of the year…………that STILL…………..$8.25 A DAY!!!!
While sitting in Seldovia, watching rain and snow falling all around, I am struck with how Mudflats has helped to reshape Alaska. We are certainly a fun loving bunch of blokes! I agree that our congressmen and women should be not clogging our land fills with plastic bottles!
Growing up in southern central WA, we had the cleanest, purest water ever. I would never even have considered bottled water. However, when I moved to W. WA it amazed me how nasty the water could be. At one place I lived, I ended up getting the water delivered because I couldn’t even stand the smell of it.
But the odd part is, it really varies from neighborhood to neighborhood. I have great clean water (Hmmm… clean water sounds odd) where I’m at now.
Nancy Pelosi also spent about 2900 on flowers, which MSNBC made much of – but apparently some of it was for funeral flowers for Jack Kemp, and if you think one 60 dollar bouquet every two days for the speaker’s office it’s not that big a deal.
A former butler was talking about the state dinner the other day and someone asked how much the food cost, and he said they don’t try to assess it that way, because they don’t want the kitchen cutting corners for state dinners, but that the flowers cost more than the food.
So I expect there may be a fairly legitimate reason for the water costs. I bet a lot of us work in offices where the drinking water is provided.
Peter DeFazio – $1,102.92/year based on your formula, AKM.
He likes the Crystal Falls and Deer Park brands.
Such the shame, Oregon’s tap water is superb and Eugene’s in particular.
Not to mention the carbon footprint/recycling issues….
Based on the averages in your sampling, AKM, I also calculate this:
Average bottled water expenditure per Rep = $1,372.50
Number of Reps (435)
Add Senators (100)
Multiply by Offices of Congressional Members x 535
Total Bottled Water Expenditure by Congress = $ 734,287.50
Add Various Shared Congressional Facilities (est. $100,00)
Add Various Single-time Planned Congressional Events (est. $125,000)
Grand Total approximately $1,000,000 per year to serve bottled water. And I don’t think I am stretching numbers to get there.
I live in DC and don’t begrudge any members of Congress their bottled water. There have been times when children, the elderly, and those weakened by illness were advised to not drink the water straight from the tap.
The DC Water and Sewer Authority used to be a client of mine, and guess what – they serviced bottled water!
SERVED, not serviced! Argh! Stupid typos.
I wonder if the amounts shown are for everyone in the reps office.Boy they sure have a lot of people in their offices,talk about why the government is so big and the republicans have just as many if not more..You would think with the economy cut backs would be made with the help,maybe combine jobs or share job hours. Just seems an awful lot of people working under for the congressmen.
#19 Karen: Columnar paper is used by accountants/bookkeepers, etc., much less so since the advent of computer spreadsheet software (Excel, for example), for tracking expenses, keeping track of the checkbook, etc. I used it back in the stone age . I suppose some people without computers and maybe some who do, still use it. Available at office supply stores.
Staples sells columnar paper online: http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/StaplesSearch?searchkey=columnar+paper&storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&fromUrl=home
Congress critters also have offices in their districts, right? Water quality might also vary by district. That said, I can see no excuse for the little bottles. Provide a cooler or water filter, if necessary, and real glasses.
Well, I did a little math here. Looks like Don Young consumes four bottles of water every single freaking day of the year. Hope his office is next to the bathroom.
Weli, I did my homestate of NC. NC has 8 democrats and 5 republicans representatives. I do not claim these figures to be accurate because I could feel my brain slowly starting to seize up wile looking a 2000 (give or take a few pages) page document looking for lines that said bottled water. I only wish there had been 8/9 lines…heck, had one rep who had 22 lines of bottled water.
Spending on bottled water for the democrats was $9641.16 for an average per person of $1205.15/yr. For the republicans it was $6577.12 for an average per person of $1315.42/yr.
Of course their were some who spent a lot more than others. Mike McIntyre (D only spent $511.84 per year compared to David Price (D and my representative) spent $2642.52 and Sue Myrick (R) spent $2757.48.
I think some things that should also be taken into consideration are the size of each congressional district and what is in those districts…like David Price which is my representative has 3 major universities plus a lot of businesses as compared to some of our more rural districts. Also, the amount of time in office. It seems to me that the longer someone has been in Congress the more water they seem to consume
I was also a little taken aback by these representatives charging the government for $2.00 bottles of water…geez. One of the NC rep’s Virginia Foxx (R) claimed $1.25& $1.87…how cheap can you get?
Very interesting. Somebody in Congresss needs to purpose installing a top of the line filitration system. That would be far more cost effective then paying all of that money for bottled water.
please, “than”, not “then”
I think a few of us have taken AKM’s humorously-intended vignette a little too seriously. I’ve never worked in a Congressional office, but I did spend a few decades in private industry, and many office areas have 5-gal water coolers because, inexplicably, the office spaces were not plumbed for wet bars.
Also, too, it is common to provide minimal refreshments at meetings, in meeting rooms that also do not have plumbing. While it would certainly be better to provide pitchers of water, it is a lot simpler to just include some bottled water in the same ice tray as the soft drinks (or, in parts of Europe, the soft drinks and beer).
Since bulk water tends to cost $0.25 to $0.50 a gallon, I assume that the items in the $2.00 range represent 5-gallon bottles for coolers. But, then again, who knows?
I’m so surprised that many of these legislators drink any bottled water at all. Most dogs prefer to lap up their water directly from the toilet.
LOL!! Sorry, I just couldn’t resist!
My Texas Rep whose name ends in (R) chugged about $1200 worth of bottled water…, roughly $5/day…, so that’s not too bad.
Personally speaking, I have a Britta water pitcher now, because I was tired of finding half-empty water bottles all over the house.
Now I find half-empty water glasses all over the house.
In our house, we drink from the tap, or from Mason jars. Occasionally from our hands, as we dash across running streams. What can I say? The only water bill we have is the one from the city.
Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) – $712.60
So, if bottled water is a million dollar deal, is there just on supplier with the contract?