WASHINGTON - The arrival of nearly 100 freshmen did little to change the overall financial picture of Congress, financial disclosure reports showed Wednesday: On the whole, lawmakers are a well-heeled lot.
House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, reported a net worth ranging from about $2 million to $6 million in 2010, much of it in blue-chip stocks.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., reported a net worth of at least $3.35 million.
Nevertheless, the reports offered reminders of the more typical financial burdens faced by most Americans. Many lawmakers reported unpaid student loans or hefty credit-card balances. One cash-strapped freshman put himself on his campaign payroll to make ends meet last year.
The reports disclose lawmakers' unearned income and liabilities in broad ranges, making it difficult to describe exact transactions or precise net worth. Lawmakers do not have to include any information about their primary residences.
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Many members opted for an extension and will file their 2010 reports later.
Beyond the numbers, the annual reports provide a window into the oddities and luxuries in the private lives of the nation's public servants. A husband pouring money into a struggling football league. A California congressman's good day or two at the races.
Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Calif., used her campaign committee to generate cash. She received a final payment between $5,000 and $15,000 on an outstanding loan she made to her campaign committee in the late 1990s. The $150,000 loan produced at least $132,700 in interest over 13 years, according to financial filings dating to 1998. At one point, the congresswoman charged her committee 18 percent interest.
"I didn't need the money," she said, telling why she had waited to retire the debt.
Boehner's report showed his investments had increased roughly 15 percent in value since 2009. His wealth, however, hardly compares to his predecessor, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is one of the wealthiest members of Congress.
Pelosi's investment-banker husband, Paul, owns commercial property in San Francisco worth at least $5 million. The two jointly own a vineyard worth at least $5 miillion, and she's a limited partner in real estate in the $5 million-$25 million range. He poured at least $650,000 into a new professional football league and at least $1.8 million into the Sacramento Mountain Lions, one of the league's five teams. He sold at least $2 million in Apple stock and at least $765,000 in Cisco Systems stock in 2010.
Another of the richest is Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who made his fortune in the car-alarm business. Issa is worth at least $200 million, according to his report, but the precise figure is impossible to determine.
