Watchdog group seeks probe of House office-sleepers

A government watchdog group filed an ethics complaint Thursday against federal lawmakers who make the U.S. House their home by sleeping in their offices.

Request for Investigation into Conduct of Members Who Sleep in Their Offices

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington challenged the sleepover practices. An estimated 40 to 50 members of Congress camp in their suites, including two members from Nevada, Republicans Joe Heck and Dean Heller.

The lawmakers appear to be violating House rules that say official resources can't be put to personal use,  Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said in the complaint submitted to the Office of Congressional Ethics.

Further, she said, office lodging should be considered a fringe benefit, with its value taxable as income -- anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000 a month based on from rents on Capitol Hill.

Plus, Sloan said, "it is unseemly for members of Congress to sleep in House offices, thereby increasing the work of housekeeping and interfering with necessary maintenance and construction.  It also is distasteful for members who sleep in their offices to wander the halls in sweat clothes or robes in search of a shower."

Over the years a handful of House members have pulled out cots or slept on couches in their suites, trekking to the House gym to wash in the morning. 

The ranks swelled this year with members of the large freshman class, some of whom say they camp out to save money and also to send a message to constituents that they were not being co-opted by official Washington. 

"There is nothing in the House rules that prohibits Members from sleeping in their offices," Bill Weidemeyer, the superintendent of House office buildings, told CBS News last month.
   
Heck, a freshman whose family remained in Southern Nevada and who said his decision to sleep in his office was prompted by cost considerations, said he will follow the rules whatever they are.

“I refuse to let CREW, or any other, group try to distract me from creating jobs for Nevadans," he said in a statement.  "If the ethics committee rules that members can no longer sleep in their offices, then I won’t. I’ll find a new place to sleep and come to work the next day still focused on creating jobs for Nevadans.”

Heller's office did not comment.
   
But Nevada's third U.S. House member, Democrat Rep. Shelley Berkley, said Thursday she doesn't like the idea and was wondering when someone was going to complain about it.

"I think it makes absolutely no sense, that this is a taxpayers' asset that is being abused by members of Congress. This is not your home," Berkley said.  "We are making $170,000 a year and we can't afford accommodations?  There are millions of our fellow Americans living on the streets right now. Why don't be just open up these offices and let the homeless sleep there?"

"If they want to live in their offices then they should pay taxes on it, or some measure to compensate the taxpayers for use of taxpayer assets," Berkley said. House members are paid $174,000 annually.

Berkley said she did not intend to single out Heck and Heller for criticism. 

"I just think the practice is indefensible," she said. "I understand that people with families that have no other income have challenges, there is no doubt about that. But I don't think the solution is abusing your office and taxpayer property."

"There are people all over Capitol Hill, myself included, who have roommates," Berkley said. Berkley owns a Capitol Hill townhouse and rent rooms to two House colleagues. 

 As for Nevada's senators, Democrat Harry Reid owns a condominium at the Ritz-Carlton near the Foggy Bottom section of the Washington. Republican John Ensign used to live in a group house on Capitol Hill owned by the Fellowship, a controversial Christian ministry, but moved out in 2009 and has declined to say where he is living presently while in Washington.