Members of the U.S. House make, on average, almost $175,000 annually but that isnt enough for U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., who on Monday called for congressional pay raises.
During a House Rules Committee meeting on Monday, Hastings, who ended his career on the federal bench after being impeached for accepting bribes and committing perjury by the House on a 413-3 vote and was convicted by the U.S. Senate back in the late 1980s, whined about his salary and insisted congressional representatives should be paid more.
Members deserve to be paid, staff deserves to be paid and the cost of living here is causing serious problems for people who are not wealthy to serve in this institution, Hastings said at the committee meeting, according to Roll Call.
Hastings said senators and congressional representatives should, at the very least, get tax credits and insisted Congress was not diverse or becoming increasingly elitist. The Florida Democrat even said that members of Congress could have a hard time sending their children to college.
But Hastings seems to be doing well for himself and those close to him, though claiming to be one of the poorest members of Congress. In 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported Hastings spent almost $25,000 to lease a car.
In 2012, Judicial Watch ranked Hastings as being the largest practitioner of nepotism on Capitol Hill, employing his then-girlfriend Patricia Williams on his congressional staff. Speaking to the Palm Beach Post,Hastings pushed back at Judicial Watchs report by quibbling, insisting nepotism only included family members, not romantic interests on the payroll. Perhaps that rationale explains why Hastings paid Williams more than $622,500 from 2007-2010 according to a report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington released in 2012.
First elected to Congress in 1992 and now 78, Hastings is a co-chairman of the Florida delegation and part of the Democratic leadership as a senior whip.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
