John Ensign Retiring In 2012

Big Pay Day For Hill Staffers:

Departing members of the House of Representa­tives awarded millions of dollars in extra pay to aides as they closed down their offices, according to lawmakers' spending records.

The 96 lawmakers paid their employees $6.7 million, or 31%, more in the fourth quarter of 2010 than they did, on average, in the first three quarters of the year.

That's about twice as much as the 16% increase awarded by lawmakers who returned to the 112th Congress, according to LegiStorm, an organizati­on that tracks congressio­nal salaries.

The disparity suggests retiring or defeated members used remaining funds in their official expenses budgets to boost salaries for staffers before they left Washington­, cash that might otherwise have been returned to the U.S. Treasury.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost