The underfunding of the First Branch

From 1995 to 2020, spending on the legislative branch has lagged, according to a recent analysis by Demand Progress. Funding for Congress is a rounding error:

“The legislative branch receives only 0.7% of non-defense discretionary funding. Total non-defense discretionary funding for FY 2020 was $621.5 billion; the legislative branch received just under $5 billion.”

The analysis also notes that Congress itself only sees a small portion of the total legislative branch dollars.

“Within the legislative branch, 20% of its total funding goes towards the personal offices in the House and the Senate, at $520m each, which covers all member representational costs. Major costs for Congress come from its support agencies: the Library of Congress gets 15% of the budget ($728m); the Architect and GAO each gets about 12% (~$610m); and the Capitol Police get 9.5% (~$460m). (The USCP has requested a $56m increase for FY 2021.)”

Read more of the analysis at https://s3.amazonaws.com/demandprogress/reports/2020-02_The_Undermining_of_Congress.pdf.