March 17, 2008
The Speaker’s expenses, US style
Nancy Pelosi’s visit to London tomorrow is a good excuse to look at how our British speaker compares on the expenses front. With all the fuss made over Michael Martin’s air miles and taxis, you would be forgiven for thinking his office is more spendthrift. The truth is that he is downright cheap.
Ms Pelosi spent about $3m in the first nine months of last year as US Speaker. This included about $16,000 on flowers — a nine-month floral bonanza that cost about double the sum Mr Martin’s wife spent on taxis over almost four years.
Another highlights from Ms Pelosi’s office records is a $2,400 bill for a makeup artist to prepare the speaker for her swearing in ceremony. (She later agreed to pay for this out of her own money.)
Now there’s bound to be some argument over what is included in the US expenses total (I don’t think Ms Pelosi lives in a grace and favour residence, for example). And the sums are of course irrelevant if any of the claims prove to be improper. But it is clear that Ms Pelosi’s costs are a different order of magnitude.
Indeed this holds for all US elected representatives. The US “representational allowance” averages about $1.4m, compared to an average of £135,000 claimed by MPs.
Yet, in spite of this gap, there is much less fuss about US congressional expenses. Some MPs will argue it is all down to aggressive British hacks. More shrewd observers will note that the American politicians declare almost everything they spend (in what is nicknamed the “bitch book” because it allows congressional staffers to compare their salaries). Perhaps openness is the answer?
