Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday: Ex-Speakers Enjoy House Money

Topline: Congressional salaries and office space already cost taxpayers a bundle. Yet few realize that the speaker of the House gets to keep their office space, staff and budget for five years after retiring.

Dennis Hastert, a profile of wasteful spending on a former Speaker

Dennis Hastert, the Republican speaker from 1999 to 2006, received a $4 million budget after he left office, and used $1.9 million of it, according to ABC News — $2.8 million in 2025 dollars.

Hastert’s office cost $441,000 in 2010 alone, according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses. 

Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname “Dr. No” by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn’t stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.   

Coburn’s Wastebook 2010 included 100 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $11.5 billion, including the cost of Hastert’s legacy office.

Key facts: News reports from 2010 found that Hastert rarely even visited his office. Still, his allowance was available for phone and TV bills, a car lease and postage for mail to voters. His three staffers each earned over $100,000.

A 1970 law created the allowance for offices for former House speakers, two weeks before Speaker John McCormack left Congress. The offices can’t be used for political purposes, but are there to “facilitate the administration, settlement, and conclusion of matters pertaining to or arising out of” their time in Congress.

An attempt to end the privilege

John Boehner also took advantage of the law when he left Congress in 2015, spending an unknown amount of money. Weeks later, Reps. Thomas Massie and Walter Jones introduced an amendment to try and end the privilege.

Massie told ABC News before the failed vote, “I’m confident that when we get this legislation to the floor, every member of Congress will vote with us to eliminate this waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.

Summary: Many Americans likely wish Congress members would accomplish more with their jobs, but paying expenses for politicians who don’t even have a job is another story entirely.

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This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.