- The newest authorities funding invoice included $174,000 for Dianne Feinstein’s daughter.
- It is a custom often known as a “demise gratuity” that is been in place for at the very least 140 years.
- Congress has spent greater than $5 million on demise gratuities since 2000.
When each chambers of Congress voted to avert a authorities shutdown earlier this month, they weren’t simply voting for a invoice to maintain the lights on.
They have been additionally handing over $174,000 to Katherine Feinstein, the daughter of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
As specified by Part 146 of the Additional Persevering with Appropriations and Different Extensions Act, which President Joe Biden signed into regulation on November 16:
However some other provision of this Act, there may be hereby appropriated for fiscal 12 months 2024, out of any cash within the Treasury not in any other case appropriated, for fee to Katherine Anne Feinstein, beneficiary of Dianne Feinstein, late a Senator from the State of California, $174,000.
However Katherine Feinstein, a former choose in San Francisco and the one youngster of the recently-deceased California Democrat, nearly actually doesn’t want that cash.
Her mom held tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in property, making her one of many wealthiest members of Congress, and Katherine — who has been engaged in a protracted dispute over her mom’s property and even held energy of legal professional over the long-serving late senator — is more likely to inherent a good portion of that wealth.
So why did Congress give her $174,000? The reply, it seems, is one thing often known as the “demise gratuity.”
A convention for at the very least 140 years
In keeping with consultants, the demise gratuity — a fee to the surviving household of a member of the Home or Senate who dies in workplace — has its origins in an earlier period of American historical past, when life insurance coverage was much less commonplace.
It is also a matter of custom, fairly than regulation.
The Nationwide Taxpayers Union Basis — a fiscally conservative advocacy group — has pin-pointed the earliest such fee in 1880, when Congress paid $6,000 to the widow of the Rep. Alfred Lay, a Missouri Democrat who died in workplace the earlier 12 months.
However the group says that it is potential that these funds occurred even sooner than that.
The funds, that are given out regardless of the recipients personal private wealth, have been initially meant to permit the spouses or households of deceased lawmakers to outlive with out their earnings.
As of late, the demise gratuity is equal to a 12 months’s wage — $174,000 for rank-and-file lawmakers, $193,400 for majority and minority leaders, and $223,500 for the speaker of the Home.
It is greater than the household of deceased troopers get — and it is tax-free
When a member of the army dies within the line of service, surviving relations are paid $100,000 — a bit greater than half of what lawmakers get.
Each lawmakers and army members’ demise gratuities are thought of as presents, and are thus exempted from taxes.
In keeping with the related portion of US regulation:
Any demise gratuity fee at any time particularly appropriated by any Act of Congress or at any time made out of the relevant accounts of the Home of Representatives or the contingent fund of the Senate shall be held to have been a present.
It is also considerably controversial
Teams like NTUF argue that the apply is wasteful, calling it “outmoded within the fashionable period given the provision of choices for retirement financial savings and life insurance coverage.”
In 2021, NTUF calculated that gratuity funds have price taxpayers greater than $5.1 million since 2000.
Earlier recipients have included the relations of some terribly rich lawmakers, together with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.
“That could be a Senate custom that we’ll do,” former Sen. Richard Shelby informed Roll Name in 2018 following McCain’s demise. “We’ll do what we’ve got to do, we’ll do the appropriate factor.”
And as within the case of Feinstein, typically the funds are delivered by means of completely unrelated, must-pass laws.
In 2013, the widow of Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey was awarded a demise gratuity as a part of a invoice to avert a default on the nation’s demise, with ABC Information describing the fee for example of “pork” spending.
Rep. Invoice Posey of Florida, a fiscally conservative Republican, has launched payments to ban the funds a number of occasions throughout his tenure.
In a 2011 press launch, Posey argued that the custom is “troublesome to justify notably when each different American purchases their very own life insurance coverage.”
“This situation issues the correct use of taxpayer sources together with restoring the legislative department to a place of belief within the public eye,” Posey stated on the time.
Enterprise Insider reached out to Katherine Feinstein through her legal professionals however didn’t obtain a response.
