INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana’s nine U.S. House members received a combined $199,332 in reimbursements for lodging, meals, and incidentals in 2023 as part of a new program that allows federal lawmakers to recoup expenses without providing receipts.
The U.S. House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress approved the program in 2022. It is considered an alternative to representatives giving themselves a raise and aims to encourage more people to run for office, according to the committee’s December 2022 report. House members receive a base salary of $174,000.
The committee also said in its report that there should be “reasonable reimbursement limits,” ethics requirements, and the process should be transparent to the public, but did not specify how to achieve these goals.
The reimbursements aim to help representatives cover the costs of living and maintaining households in their home district and D.C. However, the program does not require members to keep and submit receipts of the specific expenses, so it is unclear exactly when the expenses occurred and what they covered.
According to a Washington Post database of the 2023 reimbursements, the 328 House of Representatives members who reported reimbursements received $5.8 million under the program. Representatives received an average reimbursement of around $18,000.
Indiana Rep. Jim Baird, R-4th, received the third highest reimbursement, $41,549, of any member of the House. He spent $9,790 more than the next highest-reimbursed Indiana representative. Baird’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on these reimbursements.
Rep. Greg Pence (R-6th), serving Johnson and Bartholomew Counties, received over $27,000, about $9,000 more than the average reimbursement.
According to the Post’s database, 107 representatives reported $0 in reimbursements under the program. Rep. Rudy Yakym, R-2nd, received the lowest reimbursement of the Indiana representatives, collecting around $4,000.
Even though they are not required to submit receipts, representatives can still face criminal prosecution for lying about expenses under the program.
The complete Mia Hilkowitz story for the Indiana Capital Chronicle is available here.
