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25 Richest Members of Congress<br>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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<div class="wp-caption aligncenter"
src="https://247wallst.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/james-e-risch.jpg"
alt="" width="645" height="362"
data-credit="Win McNamee / Getty Images"
data-id="426541" data-caption" style="width: 655px"><img
class="aligncenter replaced"
src="https://247wallst.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/james-e-risch.jpg?w=645&h=362"
alt="" data-credit="Win McNamee / Getty Images" data-id="426541"
data-caption="" height="362" width="645">
<div class="wallst_image_source"><span>Source:</span> Win McNamee
/ Getty Images</div>
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<strong>16. James E. Risch</strong><br>
<strong>> Estimated wealth:</strong> $89,159,000<br>
<strong>> Legislative title:</strong> Republican Sen. from ID
since 2005<br>
<strong>> Sector with highest investment:</strong> Finance,
insurance & real estate<br>
<strong>> Total investments in finance, insurance & real
estate sector:</strong> $83,780,000<br>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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<p>Ken<br>
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