Congressional Staff Sizes, Salaries Reflect Members' Priorities

By BRIAN TUMULTY
Gannett Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - When it comes to hiring and paying staffers, congressional representatives from New York's Hudson Valley and upstate communities take different approaches.

The Gannett Washington Bureau surveyed 10 House offices to find out who their staffers are, how they got their jobs, how long they've been there, how much they earn and what work they do.

House members receive, on average, $1.4 million a year to pay staff salaries, rent district offices, buy office supplies, mail letters to their constituents and cover other expenses in operating their offices at home and in Washington.

The two lawmakers who spent the most on staff salaries during the first six months of the year were Democratic Reps. Eliot Engel of the Bronx and Maurice Hinchey of Hurley in Ulster County. Each spent more than $500,000.

Freshman Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, spent the least - $355,765. Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, spent even less - $86,621 - but he didn't take office until April after a special election.

House members aren't allowed to hire more than 22 employees, and they can't pay any one staffer more than $168,411, but other hiring decisions are up to them.  Most of the 10 lawmakers surveyed employ the maximum number of staffers.

Two congressmen serving their first terms, Murphy and Chris Lee, a Republican from a Buffalo suburb, have the smallest staffs.  Lee employed 16 staffers as of June 30.  Murphy employed 15.  Both are former businessmen.

Women hold the chief of staff spot in three offices - Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, John Hall, D-Dover, and Maffei.  That's roughly the same ratio as in the House as a whole, where 33 percent of offices were led by a female chief of staff, according to a Women's Campaign Forum survey of 413 out of 435 offices.