Category: News & Pop Culture

A new report out from CREW critiques payments and other perks given to Congressional family members through campaigns and/or PACS.

I caught the beginning of an interview on NPR this morning. I was listening via Sirius so I wasn’t familiar with the host or program but I think it may have been Talk of the Nation.
According to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington the actions of Congress members were legal, but the watchdog group questions whether they should be.

“CREW has rarely been able to verify the qualifications of relatives on the campaign payroll, but the legitimacy of at least some payments — those made to children, for example — appears dubious,” the 149-page report says. “It is also legal for the close relatives of members to lobby, yet the unique access offered to these lobbyists creates a situation ripe for abuse.”
The group examined current members of Congress who are chairs or ranking members of House committees and subcommittees, and only looked at the 2002, 2004 and 2006 election cycles. Many of its findings have been previously disclosed in news media including The Plain Dealer.

44 Democrats and 53 Republicans were cited in the report.
The report names seven Texas congressmen, including our very own Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis/Arlington.
The report says the Barton campaign paid Barton’s wife $57,000 during the 2006 campaign and his son and daughter have received over $17,000 over the last few campaign cycles. The Barton Campaign also made a contribution to his mother. She only received $7,000 for the purchase of a car for the campaign.
Also cited from Texas are Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Ralph Hall (R-TX), Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) and 2008 presidential candidate, Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson/Galveston/Victoria.
During the 2006 campaign, the Ron Paul Campaign paid his daughter $36,000 in salary and Ron Paul’s PAC paid her $20,000 in salary. She’s listed as the treasurer of the PAC from 2002-2006.
During the 2004 campaign, the campaign paid Ron Paul’s daughter $53,000 in salary and the PAC paid her $3,000.
During the 2002 campaign, the campaign paid her $48,000 in salary.
The Ron Paul campaign has also paid the mother and father-in-law of another daughter, that same daughter and a grandson.

It may be legal, but I don’t like the looks of it. The lady being interviewed on NPR this morning said, “The real scandal in Washington isn’t all the things that are illegally going on, its the legal things that are going on.”

Read the full report
Read a summary
Download a quick overview chart