See how much your lawmaker banked in meal, lodging payments during the pandemic

• Angela Couloumbis/Spotlight PA
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  Angela Couloumbis has covered government, politics, courts and crime for The Philadelphia Inquirer since 1996. She has reported on forest fires in the Rocky Mountains, riots in Washington, D.C. and Cincinnati, the mob’s effort to infiltrate city hall in New Jersey’s poorest city and the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
  
  For the past 13 years, she has focused on government and politics in the Pennsylvania State Capitol, shedding light on backroom dealing and corruption. She was part of a two-member reporting team that, in 2014, exposed a secret effort by the state Attorney General’s office to shut down an investigation into lawmakers who accepted envelopes stuffed with cash from an undercover government informant. The reporting led to a series of resignations and criminal convictions over several years. She has spent the past 18 months focused on investigative reporting on the #metoo movement in Pennsylvania. Her coverage has included projects on secret, taxpayer-funded sexual harassment settlements in the Legislature and state government.

 Joe Hermitt / The Patriot-News

House Minority Whip Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, leaves the House floor wearing gloves and a mask after the morning legislative session, Tuesday, March 24, 2020, at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. The House session will be the first in state history where members can vote remotely due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters.

(Harrisburg) — Despite the coronavirus pandemic and a lengthy statewide shutdown, Pennsylvania state lawmakers — led by Democrats in the House — still banked hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional taxpayer money for meals and lodging while on official business through a perk known as “per diems.”

The payments, known as “per diems,” have long been criticized as an unnecessary largesse for the country’s largest full-time legislature, which pays the third-highest salaries for state lawmakers in the country.

But against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused historic hardship for so many across the state, the payments are receiving fresh attention.

Per diems are flat rates lawmakers can claim when they travel more than 50 miles from their house for legislative business. Unlike in the private sector, legislators don’t have to provide receipts, leaving open the possibility that their actual daily expenses could be more or less than the full per diem rate, which in 2020 generally ranged from $178 to $200. Pennsylvania has some of the most generous per diem rates among all state legislatures, according to a national analysis.

Read the full story here, or use the lookup tool below to search for your lawmaker or county to see how much they requested in reimbursement during the coronavirus pandemic:

(Can’t see the interactive tool below? Click here.)

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