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Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg, wife of the late Senator Frank Lautenberg, stands on the platform in the Secaucus train station that bears his name as the senator's body is loaded into a train for transport to Arlington National Cemetery in June.

(Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger)

TRENTON — The U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to approve a large appropriations bill that includes a $174,000 payment to the widow of the wealthy Sen. Frank Lautenberg, according to a Washington watchdog group.

Daniel Schuman, policy director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), noticed the payment and questioned why Congress would give the money – part of a little known "death gratuity" families of members of Congress who die in office are eligible for – to Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg, a New York City resident.

“While we join Vice President Biden in offering our condolences to Mrs. Lautenberg and her family, why is the government throwing money at a multimillionaire Sen. Lautenberg’s assets exceeded $57 million in 2011,” Daniel Schuman, CREW’s policy director, wrote on the group’s blog. “How is this a top funding priority?”

Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director, said her group had nothing against the Lautenberg family that Congress automatically makes the appropriation.

A call and email to Englebardt Lautenberg were not immediately returned.

Lautenberg, who died in June, co-founded the payroll firm ADP.

According to Schuman, the payment would be tax free because federal law treats it as a gift.

The appropriations bill has not yet passed the Senate.

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