Sponsor
Michael Dennis Rogers
Representative · R-AL
Representative · R-AL
The bill makes per diem payments for in‑person voting more predictable and less costly for Members, while shifting additional travel costs onto taxpayers and raising administrative and fairness concerns.
Members who must travel to Washington for in-person voting can receive a standardized per diem for lodging and meals (including adjacent travel days), reducing their out-of-pocket travel costs.
Permitting meals and incidental per diem and standard lodging allowances for voting days makes reimbursement rules more predictable and supports Members' ability to stay overnight for official duties.
Regulations are required, to the greatest extent practicable, to preserve the non-taxable treatment of these per diem payments, reducing tax uncertainty for Members who receive them.
Extending taxpayer-funded per diem payments to Members traveling from their districts increases federal expenses that are borne by taxpayers.
The change could prompt increased lodging and meal claims and add administrative burden as committees promulgate new rules or supersede existing regulations.
May create perceptions of uneven treatment between Members whose lodging was already covered and those newly eligible, raising fairness and optics concerns among constituents.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes GSA-rate lodging and meals & incidental per diem for Members who travel from outside the Washington Metropolitan Area to cast in-person votes, with exclusions and committee regulations.
Provides per diem allowances for lodging and for meals & incidental expenses to Members of Congress who travel from their designated residence to the Washington Metropolitan Area (WMA) to cast in-person votes, with exclusions for Members whose designated residence is inside the WMA or whose lodging/meals are already paid under existing Member allowances. Per diem amounts follow GSA rates and House and Senate committees must issue implementing regulations; the rule begins with the 119th Congress.
Official title: To provide a per diem allowance for Members of Congress for the costs of lodging, meals, and incidental expenses incurred because of travel to and from the Washington Metropolitan Area in order to cast votes in Congress, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 31, 2025 by Michael Dennis Rogers · Last progress March 31, 2025