With a collective net worth of $3.7 billion, most of Congress’s 535 members have fewer financial concerns in a recession than their constituents.



McCain remains one of Senate’s many millionaires, and Obama joins the club.

iabilities listed in Sen. Cardin’s financial disclosure are not personal liabilities, but rather liabilities only affecting a limited liability partnership (LLP) in which he is invested. This additional information, which was not apparent on the senator’s publicly available report, changed CRP’s calculation of his net worth considerably.

Note: As originally posted on Oct. 16, this news release stated that Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) may owe creditors as much as $50 million, according to his 2007 reports. His office has since informed us that certain l

WASHINGTON — An economic recession is looking increasingly likely, but the personal finances of members of Congress suggest they will be able to withstand the slowdown far better than most Americans, according to a new analysis of lawmakers’ latest personal financial reports by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

U.S. senators had a median net worth of approximately $1.7 million in 2007, the most recent year for which their financial data is available, and 62 percent of the Senate’s members could be considered millionaires. In the House of Representatives, the median net worth was about $684,000, with 39 percent of members having net worths estimated to be at least $1 million. By contrast, only about 1 percent of all American adults can be considered millionaires. Growth between 2006 and 2007 was still a healthy 13 percent, despite indications last year that the economy was headed south.

“Worries about the economy that most members of Congress are feeling right now are likely coming from their constituents, who will head to the polls in less than three weeks,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. “For the majority of lawmakers, the pressure they are feeling wouldn’t appear to be coming from their personal finances. With a median net worth of $746,000, most members of Congress have a comfortable financial cushion to ride out any recession.”

Before the American economy showed signs in 2007 of slowing down, lawmakers had enjoyed an extraordinary run in their personal investments and other finances. Members of Congress, who are now paid about $169,000 annually, saw their net worths soar 61 percent from 2004 to 2007, on average.

One of the big gainers in 2007 was Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, who leaped from being the 70th richest senator in 2006 to the 31st in 2007. Obama’s average net worth jumped from an estimated $800,000 in ’06 to $4.7 million last year, fueled largely by royalties from his two best-selling books. Obama’s presidential opponent, Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, dropped a couple of notches in 2007, from 10th to 12th. CRP estimated McCain’s net worth in 2007 to be about $28.5 million, largely due to Cindy McCain’s family fortune. Like many members of Congress, most of Sen. McCain’s wealth is derived from his spouse.

The figures on elected representatives’ personal wealth come from the financial disclosure reports they were required to file most recently, covering 2007, and from their reports for the preceding three years. CRP’s award-winning website, OpenSecrets.org, details the finances of members of Congress in a free, publicly available, searchable database, along with the finances of the president, vice president and selected executive branch officials. As of this week, this two-year-old Web tool now contains data on officials’ finances for 2004 through 2007, allowing for easy comparisons of their wealth over the four-year period.

FULL OF STRUGGLING STOCKS, LAWMAKERS’ PORTFOLIOS HAVE TAKEN A HIT



In many ways, the investment portfolios of members of Congress resemble the holdings of other American investors — blue-chip stocks, mutual funds and money market accounts. Assuming lawmakers still hold the same stocks they held in 2007, they, too, would appear to have lost money in companies such as Wachovia, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and in the stock market as a whole. For example, at the end of last year, Congressmembers’ holdings in AIG were worth as much as $13.9 million. As of Oct. 15, their AIG stock was worth no more than $578,000. Lawmakers’ Wachovia holdings have plummeted from a maximum value of $6.2 million at the end of 2007 to $981,000 now.

Members of Congress have millions of dollars invested in politically influential industries that they also regulate, including real estate (at least $301.1 million, which includes property they own), commercial banking ($34.1 million) and the securities and investment ($29.3 million) and insurance ($11.5 million) industries.

Despite the overall increase in politicians’ wealth, not all members of Congress are in sound financial shape, their own reports suggest. Some would even appear to be bankrupt. Sixteen members of the House in 2007, plus three senators, had net worths that averaged in negative territory. The wealthiest member of Congress in 2007 was again Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), whose net worth CRP estimated to be $397.4 million, up approximately 1.5 percent from 2006.

Determining an official’s precise net worth is impossible using the financial disclosure forms that Congress currently employs, unfortunately. Assets and liabilities are disclosed in ranges, which are often very wide, preventing the public from determining their exact value. In Harman’s case, for example, she may be worth as much as $558.5 million or, by the most conservative measure, $236.3 million. CRP developed a methodology that accounts for these ranges, factoring in the minimum and maximum potential value of an official’s assets and liabilities and then calculating averages. Without updated reports for 2008, it is impossible to determine the current value of lawmakers’ holdings, but unless they divested before the recent market downturn, their portfolios are almost certainly worth less now.

OPENSECRETS.ORG SHINES LIGHT FOR CITIZENS ON REPRESENTATIVES’ HOLDINGS

After more than a decade of posting scanned images of lawmakers’ financial reports on OpenSecrets.org, the Center for Responsive Politics created a searchable database in 2006. Previously, citizens, journalists and others could obtain these paper reports only at government offices in Washington or through Web sites that posted images. Using the Center’s database — the only one of its kind on the Internet — comparing the net worth of individual politicians, determining who owns stock in a particular industry and spotting potential conflicts of interest is simple, free and possible from anywhere in the world.

The Personal Financial Disclosures project on OpenSecrets.org is made possible by the Sunlight Foundation. Sunlight also funds databases on OpenSecrets.org that track federal lobbying, Washington’s “revolving door” and privately sponsored congressional travel.

CRP’s database of personal financial disclosures relies on reports filed by the government officials themselves. Sometimes filers leave out information in one year’s report but include it in the prior or following year’s form, which makes changes in their finances from year to year appear misleadingly dramatic. Other valuable information is not required to be disclosed, such as the value of any of the official’s residences (unless those homes produce income).

“Members of Congress don’t make it easy for the public to keep tabs on their personal holdings and any conflicts of interest those holdings present,” said Dan Auble, who manages CRP’s database of lawmakers’ financial information. “Especially in this uncertain economy, making this information publicly available is key to keeping lawmakers focused on representing their constituents and discouraging them from personally benefiting from inside information and legislative actions.”

The next personal financial reports for Congress and the executive branch, covering 2008, are due in May 2009. They will be incorporated into OpenSecrets.org’s database after the data is made available to the public. Improving on its transparency, the House of Representatives now posts images of members’ personal financial disclosures online, beginning with the 2007 reports. Senators have not announced any plans to give the public similar electronic access to their information.