Sponsors
The bill reduces out-of-pocket travel costs and simplifies compensation for Members traveling to vote by expanding standardized per diems and preserving tax treatment, but does so at increased taxpayer expense and with potential administrative and fairness concerns.
Members of Congress who must travel to Washington to vote will be eligible for a standardized per diem covering lodging, meals, and incidental expenses on voting days and adjacent travel days, reducing their out-of-pocket travel costs and supporting overnight official duties.
Members of Congress will have simpler reimbursement rules for voting-related travel (meals and incidentals), which streamlines administrative handling of travel compensation for official duties.
Members of Congress receiving these per diem payments are more likely to retain non-taxable treatment of them because the regulations must, to the greatest extent practicable, preserve non-taxable status, reducing tax uncertainty for those Members.
All taxpayers will bear higher federal expenses because the bill extends taxpayer‑funded per diem payments to Members traveling from their districts to vote.
Congressional and administrative offices may face increased lodging/meal claims and administrative burden as committees issue new rules or supersede existing regulations to implement the per diem changes.
Some Members (and their constituents) may view the change as uneven or unfair when Members whose lodging was already covered continue under different arrangements, creating optics and fairness concerns for constituents and middle‑class families.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows Members who travel from outside the Washington Metropolitan Area to claim GSA-rate lodging and meals & incidental expense per diems when they cast in-person votes, with exclusions and committee regulations.
Introduced March 31, 2025 by Michael Dennis Rogers · Last progress March 31, 2025
Provides per diem allowances for Members of Congress who travel from their designated residence outside the Washington Metropolitan Area (WMA) to the WMA to cast in-person votes. Lodging and meal & incidental expense (M&IE) per diems follow General Services Administration (GSA) rates, are payable only for days when the Member records an in-person vote, exclude Members whose residence is within the WMA or whose lodging/meals are already paid under existing Member allowances, and require House and Senate administration committees to issue implementing regulations. The rule takes effect beginning with the 119th Congress.