Deirdre Shesgreen and Christopher Schnaars

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Rep. Thomas Massie has an unpaid bill for $240,000 sitting on his desk in Washington — a debt GOP leaders say he owes to the House Republicans' campaign operation.

It’s part of the Kentucky Republican's “dues,” a little-scrutinized but well-known levy that leaders of both parties impose on their colleagues to help fill the Democratic and Republican congressional campaign committee coffers. Lawmakers are supposed to dip into their own re-election accounts to meet these fundraising quotas. Those who make — or exceed — their dues are considered “team players,” a label that lifts their chances of landing plum committee assignments.

“They told us right off the bat as soon as we get here, ‘These committees all have prices and don’t pick an expensive one if you can’t make the payments,’ ” Massie said. “That’s part of the orientation.”

Massie has likened the dues system to “extortion.” Other critics say it gives the most prodigious fundraisers, rather than the best legislators, an edge in getting on the most powerful congressional committees.

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Massie isn't the only one complaining. Asked about party dues, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, called it part of a "corrosive system of public begging, and colleague-luring."

"Often, leadership positions in the institution hinge on proficiency at fundraising from outside interests," Kaptur said. "It is clear that political party fundraising has been moved directly into Congress, at levels never imagined by the Founders."

Other lawmakers sharply reject that criticism. They argue that lawmakers’ dues are not compulsory and have no direct link to committee assignments.

“There are lots of people who don’t pay their dues (but) who are chairs of committees, vice chairs of committees, subcommittee chairman,” Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, said. “There really is not much correlation.”

Stivers said Massie and others who complain about the system are full of sour grapes, looking for an excuse to explain their failure to advance in Congress.

No one disputes that lawmakers’ dues have become a huge and vital source of cash for the House and Senate party committees. Lawmakers are the only people who can give unlimited sums to the party committees — as long as the funds come from their re-election accounts or their leadership PACs, second accounts that lawmakers use to raise money for other candidates.

In the 2014 election cycle, the National Republican Congressional Committee, which helps vulnerable Republicans or GOP challengers in tough races, raised about $153 million overall. More than one-third of that, about $67.7 million, came from Republican candidates and GOP lawmakers' fundraising accounts, according to a USA TODAY analysis of campaign finance data.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $207 million in the 2014 cycle, with about $30.6 million of that coming from Democratic lawmakers and candidates' fundraising committees, the USA TODAY analysis showed.

A spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., referred questions about dues to the NRCC. Katie Martin, the committee's communications director, said: "Unfortunately, we do not comment on our dues system."

DCCC spokeswoman Meredith Kelly boasted that 83% of Democrats in the House have contributed dues to the committee this election cycle.

“More than anyone, House Democrats are motivated to expand our ranks so they can move forward a positive policy agenda,” Kelly said. The money “provides a critical resource in our efforts to win big in November.”

Stivers and others echoed that, saying most lawmakers pay their dues because they want to protect the GOP majority, not because they’re trying to get a coveted committee assignment or other legislative favor.

“Who is best invested in us being in the majority? It’s us!” said Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio.

How it works

At the start of each two-year election cycle, the Democratic and Republican campaign committees set up elaborate contribution programs, in which the House leaders, committee chairmen, veteran lawmakers, and even relative newcomers are given fundraising goals.

“Somebody from NRCC will usually call you and say, ‘Hey, here’s what your dues number is, and we want to work with you to help you meet some people that might want to give to NRCC,' ” said Stivers, who served as the committee’s fundraising vice chairman in the 2014 election. He said NRCC officials will give lawmakers a list of donors from around the country who have expressed an interest in helping Republicans keep and expand their GOP majority.

Lawmakers get “credit” for paying their dues when a donor they have contacted gives to the NRCC, or when they transfer money from their own accounts to the NRCC. Senators do the same thing, although the quotas appear to be more loosely enforced.

The four campaign committees declined to release the dues structure or to detail how the amounts are set. And the Ohio lawmakers interviewed for this story, except one, said they didn’t know their own quotas.

“I don’t know my exact number,” said Stivers, “… but I know I raised or gave about a half-million dollars to the NRCC” in the 2014 election cycle.

Congressional committees are divided into three tiers; the panels with the most financial power — such as the Ways and Means Committee, which crafts tax policy, and the Energy and Commerce Committee, which regulates key sectors of the economy — are viewed as plum “A” committees. The "B" panels include the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Budget Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee. The "C" committees oversee small business, science programs and congressional ethics, among other issues.

Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, of the Small Business Committee, said he wasn't sure about his number either, but his spokesman later called back to say the number was approximately $160,000 for this year. That includes $80,000 he is supposed to help raise for an annual NRCC dinner, and another $80,000 to support other NRCC events and programs.

“It’s a lot of money,” Chabot said, adding that he does the best he can to meet the quotas.

“I try to do my part,” he said. “The overall goal here in the House … is to elect as many Republicans as possible and hopefully hold the majority.”

Chabot says he sees the value in paying the NRCC dues, saying it’s part of being a “team player.” He said as the dean of Ohio’s GOP delegation, he also lobbies his home-state colleagues to pony up.

“It’s also my responsibility to encourage the other incumbent members (in Ohio) to meet their goals if at all possible,” he said.

Chabot said he’s never been pressured to contribute more to the NRCC or been told his dues would be linked to his committee posts. But he also said he’s never tried to get on one of the "A" committees, because he is simply more interested in the issues that come before the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs panels he already serves on.

Chabot said he won a slot on the Small Business Committee because Republicans “needed bodies on it,” and he’s risen to the chairman’s post in part because of scant competition for that panel.

“The three committees I’m on are not perceived as the high fundraising committees,” Chabot said.

Both parties do it

A leaked document, obtained in 2014 by Buzzfeed News, detailed the dues that Democrats impose on their House members. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was expected to contribute $800,000 that election cycle to the DCCC. Lawmakers who served as the ranking Democrats on "exclusive" committees had tabs of $500,000, while the top Democrats on less powerful committees were billed $250,000.

The Republicans had their own dues leak in 2011, when Politico reported the names and outstanding bills of some GOP lawmakers in a story that suggested party leaders had admonished them for failing to pony up.

The fundraising goals are based on seniority, clout, and access to campaign cash, several lawmakers said. House leaders are expected to fork over the most money, followed by chairmen of the most influential committees.

There's little question, though, that in addition to party-building, lawmakers give money to curry favor with each other so they have an advantage when committee assignments and leadership decisions are made. To critics like Massie, the system is just one more sign that everything in Washington is for sale.

“It’s pretty well established that to be a (committee) chairman, you’re going to have to give a certain amount of money,” Massie said. “And to be on one of the 'A' committees, you have to donate a certain amount of money.”

By linking fundraising to the top committee posts, leaders are “co-mingling official business with fundraising,” Massie said. “… Just like you shouldn’t be making phone calls asking for money from an office that’s paid for with taxpayer dollars (something that is prohibited), they shouldn’t be able to withhold or extend committee assignments that are official duties and official titles based on fundraising."

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“It’s a broken incentive,” said Josh Stewart, a spokesman for the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan good-government organization that tracks campaign finance. “Policy expertise and seniority are weighed less now than your fundraising prowess, and that is problematic.”

Tiberi is a member of the House GOP Steering Committee, which doles out committee seats and chairmanships in closed-door meetings. He said in his 16 years in the House, he’s never heard of anyone losing a committee assignment because they failed to pay their dues. But he conceded that dues do play at least a small role.

“It’s part of a larger picture,” Tiberi said. “It’s not the entire picture.”

He and others say that if a lawmaker pays his or her dues, they’re seen as a team player committed to advancing the Republican agenda. That’s a plus if you are vying to become a committee chairman, and if you haven’t paid your dues, it counts against you.

But the far more important factors, said Tiberi, are seniority and expertise. Tiberi has seen this play out from the other side, too.

Last year, he tried to leapfrog Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, to win the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. In public and in private, both men touted their contributions to the NRCC — along with their policy chops and other strengths — as they competed for that gavel.

In the 2014 election, Brady transferred $816,170 from his own re-election account to the NRCC, almost double his 2012 contribution of $413,000, according to the USA TODAY data. Tiberi gave the GOP committee $582,000 from his House account in the 2014 cycle, compared with about $75,000 in 2012, the analysis showed. In addition, they also transferred money from their leadership PACs to the NRCC and gave directly to vulnerable Republicans.

The steering committee awarded the gavel to Brady, with his seniority and a last-minute endorsement from Ryan appearing to tilt the contest in the Texas lawmaker’s favor.

For his part, Massie said he has no intention of paying his dues. He said he prefers to help his GOP colleagues by traveling to their districts and headlining fundraisers that put money directly in their campaign coffers.

Massie also said he’s not worried about losing his committee assignments for shirking his quota. That’s because he’s on 'B' and 'C' committees, including the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Science, Space and Technology panel. No one is vying for those slots, he said, because they’re not magnets for special-interest campaign cash.

“I’m on important committees that are not lucrative,” he said.

Contributing: Fredreka Schouten