For the first time in history, over half of members of Congress are millionaires, according to a new report from the Center for Responsive Politics, better known as OpenSecrets.org. Insert bitter joke about the War on Poverty here. But almost as striking as the many public servants who are raking in the big bucks is the fact that the 24 members at the bottom of the list are all deep in the red (and members 505-507 have a net worth of $0). How could these men and women with their hands on the nation’s purse strings be doing such a dismal job with their own? Meet the five poorest members of Congress.

5. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn), average net worth -$472,502

The representative from Tennessee’s 8th congressional district has had his finances dragged under the spotlight before. During his 2010 campaign, he took out a $250,000 bank loan from the Gates Banking and Trust Company, of which his father was on the board, and made the proceeds available to his campaign. After Fincher won the seat, his opponents raised questions about whether the loan had been fully collateralized as election law requires. The inquiry helped win Fincher the designation of “Most Corrupt” from the D.C. watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Though Fincher appears to have straightened out his ledger, his morals remain crooked. A seventh generation cotton farmer, Fincher has been a strident proponent of slashing billions from the food stamp program—even though he and his family accepted nearly $3.5 million in farm subsidies between 1999 and 2012. OpenSecrets found last winter that he owed between $795,000 and $1.65 million on loans for crops, equipment, and other farm expenses. Without the federal government’s generosity, Fincher might be even further in the red.

4. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), -$510,000

Velázquez, whose district encompasses parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, has been in Congress in 1993, and was the first Puerto Rican woman to join its ranks. The daughter of a sugarcane harvester who became the first member of her family to go to college, Velázquez is considered a reliable advocate for social welfare policies; she is the ranking member of the House Small Business Committee and a senior member of the Financial Services Committee.

But her personal finances are not in model shape. In 2011, The New York Post reported that Velázquez had up to $5 million in assets, including a brownstone in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn—but that her debts approached $5.2 million, and she owed $15,000 on her credit card. She is up for reelection in 2014, and OpenSecrets finds that she finished the 2013-2014 fundraising cycle with $7,737 in debt.