Representatives Will Sleep In Office — Literally

NEWSMAX

Come January, the House will have 94 new members, and at least 15 percent plan to sleep in their congressional offices rather than rent living space in pricey Washington.

“With voters again shunning Washington and fiscal excess, a number of incoming House members plan to demonstrate their scorn for both by camping out near their new desks,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

Rep.-elect Todd Rokita, an Indiana Republican, said he decided to sleep in his office after he was shown a 600-square-foot studio renting for $2,000 a month. Most House members earn $174,000 a year but maintain homes in their districts.

Rep.-elect Clarke Hansen, a Michigan Democrat, is another newcomer planning to bed down by his desk.

“I don’t want to be comfortable in Washington because I need to get back to metro Detroit,” he said. “Businesses are struggling right now. Families are struggling. I’m only in Washington to work.”

Rep. Pete Hoekstra is one veteran congressman familiar with the sleeping-in-office routine. The Michigan Republican has camped out on a couch by his desk a few nights a week since 1993. He declined to run for re-election this year to launch an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign, but his successor, Republican Bill Huizenga, has heard from hundreds of constituents who expect him to follow Hoekstra’s lead, according to The Journal.

“I think back home there’s a sense of frugality and sort of a Spartan element that this isn’t a place where you’re going to call home and get too comfortable,” he said.

House members are supplied with desks, file cabinets, tables, and chairs for their three-room suites in three House office buildings. They can sleep on a government-issue couch, but they must supply their own air mattresses or cots.

One new congressman who won’t sleep in his office is Steve Womack, an Arkansas Republican. He said: “I don’t think my staff wants to see me in my pajamas.”