Remember when Nancy Pelosi promised the “most ethical congress ever?” Now they want to help house members with their reelection campaigns by providing more funding for “franked mail.” Franked mail is a privilege that gives house members funding for constituent bulk mailings, (read: junk mail). More on franking at WIKI.

From RollCall.com

The House wants to increase Members’ office budgets next fiscal year by almost 15 percent, partly because 2010 is an election year and lawmakers anticipate a surge in franked mail.

In a recently released budget request, the House Chief Administrative Officer asked appropriators to raise the Members’ Representational Allowances — which fund everything needed to run offices, including salaries, travel and supplies — by $90 million, citing increases “due to the election year cycle.”

“In an election year the expenditures increase and then decrease in a non-election year,” the request reads.

[...]

The fiscal 2010 request includes an extra $16 million for franked mail — an 80 percent increase from fiscal 2009. The stated reason: Members send more mail to their constituents during an election year.

“It’s an incredibly naked admission that Members of Congress abuse the franking privilege for electoral purposes, even though the rules say they don’t,” said Pete Sepp, spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union. “This sends the worst possible message not only to the taxpayers, but to the electoral system as a whole.” More [here].

So what they’re telling you is every other year incumbents need to spend more of your money to get themselves reelected.

Funny, when you run for office, isn’t the travel, salaries and associated costs something the campaign pays for?

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