Congressional bonuses in a time of cuts


A CNN analysis shows that as the federal government approached the fiscal cliff and sharp budget cuts last year, nearly 25 percent of House members gave their own staff members bonus checks (View the full expense reports). House members have complete and sole discretion over how their office budgets are spent and can choose to give their staffers bonuses. Below we've listed the office budget assigned to each member, how much they spent of that budget and whether their expense report contains line items that appear to be bonuses. NOTE: We say "apparent" because while some of these lawmakers have confirmed and defended the bonuses, other members did not return our request for a response. We have put an asterisk next to those who confirmed their bonuses. Related: Listen to the story by CNN's Lisa Desjardins