Poor Congresspeople

Poor Congresspeople — We’ve all seen lists of the richest congresspeople, but there are some for the poorest among them as well.

Can there really be poor people in Congress? The congressional salary, after all, is $174,000 not including  benefits.

“The 10 on our list have millions in debt among them — from business loans to credit cards to unpaid attorney fees related to an impeachment,” RollCall.com explains. The site notes, however, that determining  “minimum net worth is an inexact science” and that several on the list have multiple homes and other assets not generally associated with the poor.

Roll Calls 10 poorest members of Congress in 2015 are:

1. Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) -$8.7 million
2. Rep. Alcee L Hastings (D-FL)-$2.2 million
3. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL)- $1.3 million
4. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) -$1.3 million
5. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) -$907,000
6. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX) -$896,000
7. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-M)-$813,000
8. Sen. Matin Heinrich (D-NM)-$723,000
9. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) -$713,000
10. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA) -$700,000

Palmer Gibbs of InsideGov.com has also compiled a list of the poorest albeit with 25 names. Some are the same, some are not and the order and valuations are different. It contains explanations for Valado’s and Hastings’ problems — namely Valado’s family dairy farm debt and Hastings 1988 bribery impeachment as a federal judge — who again hold the the first and second places.

While Fattah is the only Philly area rep that Roll Call lists, InsideGov omits him but includes Chester County’s Rep. Ryan Costello (R-6) in 11th place with a worth of -$47,944 and Philadelphia’s Brendan Boyle  (D-13) in 17th with a worth of -$24,997.

Poor Congresspeople