Representative Panetta urges formula changes to better support large, high-cost districts
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Summary
Representative Panetta told the House Administration committee that Member Representational Allowance calculations do not reflect the extra costs of large, expensive districts and asked the panel to consider formula adjustments for rent and staffing.
Representative Mr. Panetta told the Committee on House Administration that Members Representational Allowance (MRA) formulas need revision to account for districts that are geographically large and have high costs of living.
Panetta said his California district spans “2,817 square miles” and requires four district offices to serve distinct communities of interest. He told the committee that opening and maintaining multiple offices, and recruiting staff in high-cost areas, strains the current MRA formula. “Without the 4 offices that I've opened, it would be very expensive and time consuming for working families in each of those 4 distinct communities to access congressional services in person,” he said.
He asked the committee to consider adjustments that would better support members who represent larger geographic districts with a high cost of living. Panetta said the MRA increase in 2023 (a 6.2% increase) did not fully address those differential costs and urged a reexamination of personnel pay benchmarks used in the MRA calculation.
Why it matters: MRAs fund constituent services and district offices; changes to the formula would affect how members staff and maintain local offices and could alter how constituents access in-person services.
The committee heard suggestions and shared practices, including traveling-staff office hours, but took no formal action during the hearing.