{"id":6805,"date":"2017-06-29T07:51:04","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T13:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=6805"},"modified":"2017-06-29T08:09:51","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T14:09:51","slug":"housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html","title":{"rendered":"Housing allowances for Congress? Maybe not."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"from<\/p>\n

In the news on Tuesday (e.g., at The Hill<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Just days before he resigns from Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Monday that House and Senate lawmakers should receive a $2,500 per month housing allowance \u2014 something he explained would help ease housing costs for members who can\u2019t afford two mortgages or rents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really do believe Congress would be much better served if there was a housing allowance for members of Congress,\u201d Chaffetz told The Hill in an interview in his Capitol office, where he sleeps whenever he\u2019s in Washington. \u201cIn today\u2019s climate, nobody\u2019s going to suggest or vote for a pay raise. But you shouldn\u2019t have to be among the wealthiest of Americans to serve properly in Congress.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Megan McArdle writes that, yes, indeedy, it would be good for legislators to sleep somewhere other than their Capitol offices, but<\/p>\n

Yet it seems worth pointing out that our congresscritters could do something to help themselves, without even dipping into the federal treasury. Thanks to Washington\u2019s unique constitutional status, Congress has more power over its operations than over any other city. The city has \u201chome rule,\u201d to be sure, but that home rule was a gift from Congress, and Congress can take back that gift any time they want. Or amend it, to slash through the array of zoning regulations that help to make Washington housing so expensive. At the very least, they could repeal the height limits, dating from 1899, which make it impossible to build true high-rises in downtown Washington, and thereby forces up the price of conveniently located housing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Heather Schwedel at Slate thinks she\u2019s\u00a0writing a tongue-in-cheek proposal when she suggests, \u201cDon\u2019t Give Congressmen a Housing Subsidy. Make Them Live in Dorms.<\/a>\u201d \u00a0(What is it with article titles with punctuation in them?), which is the work of someone too recently a college student and fails to mention the current real-world example of dorm-living legislators<\/a>, in Myanmar, who would probably find the in-office accommodations of some Congresspeople to be an upgrade but accept their living conditions for the greater good of being able to serve their country.<\/p>\n

Now, McArdle\u2019s not wrong in raising the issue of housing costs in D.C. and elsewhere being artificially high due to zoning restrictions. \u00a0And actual \u201ccorporate housing\u201d-style units would not be a bad idea, really, all joking aside \u2014 studios or 1 bedrooms with some common areas for socializing, perhaps, appropriated for from the same line item as Congress uses to fund other expenses. \u00a0And there are real questions about the appropriate pay level for Congress, and how it should be set so that, in principle at least, a \u201cregular citizen\u201d who is not independently wealthy, can continue to support a family while travelling back and forth to D.C. \u00a0Is the remedy to milkers and double-milkers<\/a>\u00a0and all the ways in which Congress sucks up money from corporations, more federal money? \u00a0(But if so, I don\u2019t want to hear another word about how politicians are \u201cserving their country\u201d!)<\/p>\n

But let me tell you about housing allowances: \u00a0back in the day, when we were expats and our employer followed a traditional financial package for its expats (which I believe has fallen out of favor in the meantime; now they just give you your pay and you fend for yourself and rationalize any financial losses as \u201cworth it for the experience\u201d), we got a housing allowance. \u00a0There was a real reason why it was a \u201chousing allowance\u201d rather than just a \u201ctemporary increase in pay\u201d: \u00a0it was based on the estimated actual housing expenses for our family size and new location, with an offset based on the expected net rental income from renting our existing house (based, that is, on average housing costs for our family size in our hometown), both of these adjusted, in some fashion, for our income level.<\/p>\n

Oh, and, as we experienced it, the \u201callowances\u201d in the expat package were all grossed up to reflect the impact of taxes. \u00a0Which turns $2,500\/month into between\u00a0$40,000 \u2013 $50,000 per year,\u00a0depending on how the gross-up is calculated.<\/p>\n

Chaffetz\u2019s proposal misses this element of variability \u2014 it\u2019s just a flat sum of money for everyone. \u00a0To be sure, there is no reason for variable costs (at least, so far as I know, it\u2019s rare for Congresspeople to move\u00a0their entire family with them), but absent this, what he\u2019s really proposing is a pay increase, and that\u2019s a whole \u2018nother issue.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image from Flickr: https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/footprintfl\/6332271341<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the news on Tuesday (e.g., at The Hill): Just days before he resigns from Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Monday that House and Senate lawmakers should receive a $2,500 per month housing allowance \u2014 something he explained would help ease housing costs for members who can\u2019t afford two mortgages or rents. \u201cI really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":6806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[660,661],"class_list":["post-6805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-congress","tag-housing"],"yoast_head":"\nHousing allowances for Congress? Maybe not.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the news on Tuesday (e.g., at The Hill): Just days before he resigns from Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Monday that House and Senate\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Housing allowances for Congress? Maybe not.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the news on Tuesday (e.g., at The Hill): Just days before he resigns from Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Monday that House and Senate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-29T13:51:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-29T14:09:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2017\/06\/6332271341_73516ba284_b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"448\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html\",\"name\":\"Housing allowances for Congress? Maybe not.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-29T13:51:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-29T14:09:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"In the news on Tuesday (e.g., at The Hill): Just days before he resigns from Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Monday that House and Senate\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Housing allowances for Congress? Maybe not.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Housing allowances for Congress? Maybe not.","description":"In the news on Tuesday (e.g., at The Hill): Just days before he resigns from Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Monday that House and Senate","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Housing allowances for Congress? Maybe not.","og_description":"In the news on Tuesday (e.g., at The Hill): Just days before he resigns from Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Monday that House and Senate","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2017-06-29T13:51:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-06-29T14:09:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":448,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2017\/06\/6332271341_73516ba284_b.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html","name":"Housing allowances for Congress? Maybe not.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-06-29T13:51:04+00:00","dateModified":"2017-06-29T14:09:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"In the news on Tuesday (e.g., at The Hill): Just days before he resigns from Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Monday that House and Senate","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/housing-allowances-congress-maybe-not.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Housing allowances for Congress? Maybe not."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}