[Vision2020] 25 Richest Members of Congress

[Kenneth Marcy]

25 Richest Members of Congress


*https://tinyurl.com/y9ac8ywv
*


President Donald Trump is by far the wealthiest member of the U.S.
government, with an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion. While Trump is
far from the typical U.S. politician, he is not the only extraordinarily
wealthy government official. Most U.S. members of congress are millionaires.

24/7 Wall St. identified the wealthiest members of the U.S. Congress
using maximum net worth estimates from Opensecrets.org, a data
clearinghouse maintained by Washington D.C.-based nonprofit research
group the Center for Responsive Politics. The center is funded primarily
by individual contributions and institutional grants.

Eighteen of the 25 are members of the House of Representatives and the
rest are senators, and the wealthiest members of congress are fairly
evenly split between the two major political parties. Thirteen are
Republicans, and the wealthiest person on this list is a Democrat.

Most senators, representatives, and other government officials are paid
an annual salary of $174,000, not enough to account for net worth
figures in the hundreds of millions for many Congress members. These
representatives accumulated their wealth both before and during their
careers in politics. Many of the politicians on this list started and
ran successful businesses, and many of these used their acquired wealth
to springboard political careers. When they leave office, some of the
individuals on this list will be able to leverage their status as a
former high-ranking government official to net lucrative speaking
engagements and find seats on corporate boards, adding to their already
substantial wealth.

Nineteen of the 25 richest members of congress were elected for the
first time less than 10 years ago. Four have served for more than 20 years.

All 25 individuals on this list possess investments valued in the
millions. Using asset disclosure documents, we identified the broad
sectors in which each of these representatives have made the largest
investments.

The finance, insurance, and real estate sector account for the largest
set of investments made by 19 of the 25 wealthiest members of Congress.
The energy and natural resources, communications and electronics,
miscellaneous business, health, and transportation sectors represent the
largest investments made by the remaining representatives.


Source: Win McNamee / Getty Images

*16. James E. Risch*
*> Estimated wealth:* $89,159,000
*> Legislative title:* Republican Sen. from ID since 2005
*> Sector with highest investment:* Finance, insurance & real estate
*> Total investments in finance, insurance & real estate sector:*
$83,780,000


To identify the 25 richest members of Congress, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed
maximum net worth estimates from Opensecrets.org, a data clearinghouse
maintained by Washington D.C.-based nonprofit research group Center for
Responsive Politics. Only current U.S. Congress members were considered.
To calculate net worth, the center added a lawmaker’s range of assets
and subtracted his or her range of liabilities. The value of investments
grouped by broad sector also came from the center’s aggregation of
disclosure documents.

Lawmakers are only required to disclose the value of assets and
liabilities within a range. Various types of holdings are also exempt
from disclosure laws, including the value of a primary residence,
personal possessions that are not held for investment purposes, and
retirement accounts. So it is difficult to determine the exact net worth
of our representatives. Many of these wealth estimates may very well be
considerably higher.


*https://tinyurl.com/y9ac8ywv
*


Ken

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20171121/bdaadc05/attachment.html>