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Contact: Viveca Novak, 202-354-0111, or [email protected]

Ninety-four new senators and House members joined the 113th Congress. But if voters felt the last group of lawmakers was out of touch with “real America,” the new class may not be better. In fact, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, the median estimated net worth of the incoming freshmen is almost exactly $1 million more than that of the typical American household.

According to data collected from personal financial disclosure forms filed by all members of Congress and candidates who succeeded at the polls in November, the median net worth of the 94 incoming lawmakers at the end of 2011 was $1,066,515. The most recent numbers available from the U.S. Census show that the median net worth of the typical American household is $66,740.

“While America continues to claw its way back to economic stability, voters have nevertheless chosen to elect new members of Congress who have already made it big,” noted Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center. “Apparently, on the whole, we don’t want people who look like us, financially speaking. What’s harder to measure is whether these new legislators appreciate the financial pain people face and can effectively represent them despite the fact that they themselves are well off.”

While they may be worth significantly more than most Americans, the incoming freshmen are on par with their colleagues in Congress. All 535 members of Congress have a median estimated net worth of about $966,000, according to CRP data.

Members of Congress have been getting slightly richer in recent years, and the trend continues. Overall, more than 48 percent of lawmakers — 257 to be exact, up seven from the previous year — have an estimated net worth of more than $1 million.

There has been some change at the top, though: For years, the wealthiest member of Congress was Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who made his fortune with his alarm business, but in 2011 he was surpassed by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), whose average estimated net worth was $500.1 million, up more than 31.6 percent from $380.4 million in 2010. Much of McCaul’s wealth is due to his wife, Linda, the daughter of Clear Channel Communications Chairman Lowry Mays.

Issa’s fortune this year is estimated to be $480.3 million — still an increase over our 2010 estimate of his average net worth, $448 million, but not enough to keep up with McCaul.

When members of Congress file their annual personal financial reports, they’re allowed to list the value of their assets and liabilities in broad ranges. In practical terms, that obscures exactly how much each member of Congress is worth. And the larger the value of the asset, the broader the allowable range.

To account for those ranges, CRP’s researchers establish a minimum and maximum net worth, and then an average net worth, for each member of Congress.

If the average net worth of every member of Congress is added together, we estimate that their total combined net worth in 2011 was about $4.5 billion.

Explore the 113th Congress’ personal wealth and investments at OpenSecrets.org.

Partisan Divide

Looking at all members of Congress, Democrats tend to be slightly wealthier: The median net worth for Democratic members is $990,508 compared to a median of $907,014 for Republicans. In the House, where the median net worth is estimated to be $856,009, Democrats are wealthier than Republicans, with Democratic members’ median estimated net worth at $910,505, compared with that of the Republicans at just $789,008. In the Senate, though, where the median estimated net worth for all members is $2.5 million, the Republicans still have the edge — $2.56 million to $2.47 million — over their Democratic colleagues.

The Democrats’ decline in the Senate has much to do with the retirement of Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), one of the wealthiest members of Congress, and the departures of Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), each of whom had an estimated net worth of more than $6 million in 2010. On the House side, 13 members with an average net worth of at least $5 million each did not return, but only three were Democrats.

Although the median estimated net worth of Democratic members is more than that of Republican members, the total median estimated value of all investments by Democrats is virtually the same as that of Republicans, $2.2 billion and $2.3 billion, respectively.

Freshman Highs And Lows

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The incoming class of freshmen members of Congress represents extremes as well as overall wealth. At the high end, Rep. John K. Delaney (D-Md.) is the wealthiest incoming member with an average estimated net worth of $139 million. Before defeating Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, Delaney ran a commercial lending firm. His numbers are high enough to vault him onto the list of wealthiest members of Congress as the sixth richest (behind McCaul, Issa and Democratic Sens. Jared Polis of Colorado, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Mark Warner of Virginia.)

At the other end of the spectrum, freshman Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) has the lowest average estimated net worth at minus $15.6 million. Even using the maximum possible value of Valadao’s assets, his estimated net worth is still negative $1.1 million. Valadao is in the red due to lines of credit he has taken out to support his dairy farms — for livestock, feed and real estate. Valadao’s chief of staff, Tal Eslick told OpenSecrets.org that the two farms are family farms, held in partnership with other members of the Congressman’s family. While the personal disclosure forms require Valadao to list the total liabilities of the partnerships, it only lists his personal assets, not the full value of the partnership’s assets.

“This significantly distorts the ratio of assets and liabilities,” Eslick said.

The issue of large liabilities for a personal business, particularly a farm, is not a problem unique to Valadao — Rep. Steve Fincher (R-Tenn.) also owns a family farm and shows similar farm-related debts.

Congress In Debt

A total of 25 members of Congress are calculated to have an average estimated net worth in the negative range — and seven of them (including Valadao) have bigger liabilities than assets even when their assets are valued at the top end of the range and their liabilities are valued at the minimum amount.

In some cases, that can be attributed to business investments, as with Valadao: Freshman Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C) has the third lowest average net worth at negative $2.9 million because of loans were taken out on behalf of real estate investments (although using the maximum values of his assets, Rice was worth well over $10 million in 2011). But others just have debts — such as Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) who has the second lowest average net worth at a negative $4.7 million. Even at maximum value, his net worth is still at a negative $2.1 million. Hasting’s liabilities are outstanding legal bills incurred in the 1980s when he was charged with accepting a bribe while sitting as a federal judge. (Hastings was acquitted in court, but impeached by the Senate in 1989 and removed from his judgeship; he was elected to Congress three years later in 1992.) For as long as OpenSecrets.org has tracked Hastings, his debt has remained the same.

Congressional Investments

It can be hard to determine precisely what investments members of Congress hold; many simply put their money in mutual funds or managed portfolios. These often provide good returns and keep lawmakers from making decisions about individual stocks based on privileged information they learn at the office (President Barack Obama invests similarly). But among those who do pick stocks, by far the most popular investment is once again General Electric. In 2011, at least 71 members of Congress were invested in the conglomerate — investments that at their 2011 minimum value added up to $2.9 million. In 2010, 75 members owned shares in the company.

“Often people focus on who’s up, who’s down and the number of millionaires in Congress. And of course we should monitor how representative our legislature is and whether someone is getting rich while in public office — and why,” said CRP’s Krumholz. “Even more important, however, is to know what our elected officials invest in and whether or not their investments pose conflicts of interests. That’s the purpose of these reports: for constituents to be able to monitor the actions taken by their representatives in light of the potential for personal financial gain. This searchable, sortable and downloadable database makes that task infinitely easier.”

For congressional investors, financial stocks seem to be out of style.

Among the top 50 most popular investments for members of Congress, Bank of America‘s standing took a serious tumble. In 2010, it was the third most popular investment with 57 members of Congress owning shares in the giant bank, totaling at least $2.8 million. According to this year’s filings, just 40 members of the 113th Congress own shares in Bank of America, with a combined minimum value of $1.1 million (the maximum amount those investments might have been worth in 2011 is just $2.8 million.)

Other financial institutions also dropped in popularity among congressional investors, although not as dramatically. Citigroup went from having 28 congressional investors in 2010 to just 21 in 2011, and the number of Wells Fargo investors dropped from 45 in 2010 to 40 in 2011.

Only one stock on the top 50 list showed a dramatic increase in the number of lawmaker investors: Chevron. In 2010, it had just 24 congressional investors, whose holdings were worth at least $1.9 million, but in 2011 the total number of investors jumped to 35, with holdings worth a minimum of $2.2 million.

Overall, though, very few stocks had more investors in 2011 than 2010. Besides Chevron, only 10 stocks on the top 50 list had more investors in 2011, and all of those had less than four new investors. Like GE, Procter & Gamble remained a popular investment — once again the second most popular overall — but saw a decline from 62 investors in 2010 to just 56 in 2011. The number of investors in other companies among the most popular investments — such as Microsoft, Pfizer, Cisco Systems, Intel and AT&T — also declined.

This suggests a general decline in interest in investing in specific stocks — even as the overall value of investments continues to rise and the overall estimated net worth for many members of Congress continues to increase.

Download the full list of all current members of Congress and the most popular congressional investments here: http://bit.ly/ZXOBxM



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