Taxpayers on the Hook for Congressional Office Swap

Your member of Congress might get a nicer office for the next session, but you will foot the bill for his or her move.

At the start of each Congress, newly elected freshmen participate in a lottery for offices suites for themselves and their staff. Returning members, in turn, seek to leave the quarters they got in their lottery for larger or nicer digs or locations closer to the House or Senate floor.

And this time, with control of the Senate changing hands, Republican committee staffers and their Democratic counterparts will be trading quarters as well.

The office swap can be costly. NBC Washington reports that in the 2012 office swap, 254 members of Congress moved into new office suites, costing taxpayers $1.5 million.

According to NBC Washington, the 2014 move “will require Capitol work crews to shift furniture, furnishings, boxes and electronics between hundreds of rooms and cubicles.”

The Architect of the Capitol’s office supervises the office swap; organizing everything from furniture to office supplies and computers. The process often takes up the entire time from when Congress adjourns in December until the new Congress begins in January. Meanwhile, furniture is left clogging the hallways in congressional office buildings, and other work crews scramble to transfer phones and computers.