Elizabeth Wynne Johnson, a senior correspondent with Capitol News Connection public radio was out at Reagan National Airport to interview Rep.-elect Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) as he carries his cot for his new living space, his congressional office. | John Shinkle/POLITICO New member comes packing a cot

More than 50 soon-to-be members of Congress arrived on Capitol Hill this week with plans for changing America.

Jason Chaffetz came with a cot wrapped in duct tape and a plan for washing his underwear.


Elected two weeks ago to represent Utah’s 3rd Congressional District, Chaffetz intends to serve how he lives and how he campaigned: frugally.

So rather than renting an apartment in Washington, he’ll join the ranks of members who sleep in their offices at night and shower each morning in the House gym. He will take his suits to the House dry cleaner and will bundle together his “socks and undies” to take home every weekend to be washed.

“My wife is just worried that it is going to stink,” he said. “She said, ‘Jason, get good air circulation.’”

Chaffetz says he’s always lived a pay-go lifestyle — his only debts have been a house and a car — and that he’d like to see Washington start doing the same.

“This is a town where a billion dollars tends to be a rounding error,” he said. “We have to stop running this country on a credit card.”

Chaffetz (his website says it’s pronounced “Chay-fits”) decided to sleep where he works after learning that several current members do the same.

No one knows how many members have their offices do double duty as residences. Neither the Committee on House Administration nor the Office of the House Chief Administrative Officer keeps a list. Nor does the sergeant-at-arms’ office, which might be interested in knowing which offices contained sleeping members if there were an emergency on the Hill.

Outgoing Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) told the Gannett News Service in 2007 that, based on what he saw in the health club each morning, as many as 40 other congressmen sleep in their offices. Members and their office staffers aren’t so keen on giving out names, and no offices would confess to knowing who or how many are asleep near their desks.



Fred Beuttler, the deputy historian of the House, said that, in the 1980s, Democratic leaders advised members to move their families to Washington with them. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia advised Republicans to do the opposite to minimize their footprint in favor of more time spent in their districts.

Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), said the only advice Republican leaders give new members about their families today is “to work hard to make them a priority.”

A number of Republican members are known to sleep in their offices. Among them: Reps. Jeff Flake of Arizona, Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, Denny Rehberg of Montana, Lee Terry of Nebraska and John Sullivan of Oklahoma.

After decamping from a room in a nearby town house, Sullivan sleeps on a mattress in his office. Terry recently graduated from a succession of air mattresses to a rollaway bed, an aide said.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) used to sleep in his office. But spokesman Chris Crawford said Kingston eventually moved out for the benefit of staffers who got tired of finding containers of ramen noodles around.

For all the majesty of the Capitol, there’s nothing particularly glamorous about living in a House office building. Still, Chaffetz may be taking the low-rent approach to a new extreme.

Before flying into Washington on Sunday, Chaffetz went to a local grocery store in Utah to buy his new bed. His wife was out watching the new James Bond movie with girlfriends, so Chaffetz took his 7-year-old daughter, who was apparently mortified as he unfolded and tested cots in the aisle of the store. Satisfied with what he saw, Chaffetz paid $44.89 for his new bed-away-from-home, then wrapped it in a garbage bag and duct tape for the trip east.

At Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the Marine escort assigned to meet Chaffetz watched as he picked up the cot from baggage claim — and then the driver of the luxury sedan sent to shuttle Chaffetz to Capitol Hill spent 10 minutes trying to stow the unwieldy package in the trunk.

The cot and its owner are currently ensconced — along with the rest of the members-elect and their families and belongings — at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill.

Chaffetz doesn’t know exactly where he’ll be laying his head long-term just yet; incoming members won’t be assigned their offices until Friday. But he’s looking at the bright side while he waits.

House office buildings have “great security,” he said. “When they give me a terrible office up on the seventh floor, I’ll chalk it up as the penthouse, and I won’t have noisy neighbors above me.”