“Today, members of Congress can lease Lexuses, BMW’s, Infinities, Mercedes, all fall within the guidelines. Not all do that, but does that send a message to our folks back home that this is the right way to do it?” Nugent asked during the floor debate.

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During that debate, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said 63 House members use their allotted office budgets to pay their auto leases at an average of $589 a month.

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Jamie Dupree, who writes a blog for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, helpfully broke it down further on Monday, and found the average to be slightly higher. Those 63 lawmakers – which he lists by name – spend altogether $38,444.20 a month on car leases, according to Dupree, which is an average of $610.23 a month per lawmaker.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) spends the most on vehicles at $1,318.97 a month. But using federal funds on cars is indiscriminate. As Dupree points out, the list includes members of the House leadership, old and new members, liberals and conservatives.

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Having your car bills paid is apparently the great unifier.

The cars paid for by taxpayers are intended for “official” use only. But the House Ethics manual says lawmakers may use their official vehicle for unofficial uses if it’s “along the route of a day‘s official itinerary.” It provides this example: “Member G has four official events to attend in his district one day. He will be traveling between events in the car leased for the use of his congressional district office and paid for out of official expenses allowance. As he drives from the second to the third event, he will pass by the dry cleaner. He may stop to pick up his dry cleaning, as it would be a permissible incidental nonofficial use of the car.”