Pensions for congressional felons have cost taxpayers about $3.7 million between 2007 and 2022, according to research from the nonpartisan taxpayer research organization, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
The reason why is a series of loopholes that have been protecting congressman despite being convicted of committing wire fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, sexual abuse, and child pornography.
Not a single former federal lawmaker who has applied for retirement benefits has ever lost their taxpayer-funded congressional pension, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
* Since 1980, more than two dozen members of Congress have been indicted for such crimes, some spending years in prison, but they all got their pensions.
*The first legislation to restrict some government officials from collecting their pensions was the Hiss Act in 1954.
It was designed to take away pensions from government officials convicted of national security crimes such as treason, espionage and sabotage, or who pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying in such cases.
The legislation was named after State Department official Alger Hiss after he was convicted of perjury for denying he conducted espionage for the Soviet Union.
The bottom line is his revoked pension was reinstated in 1972 as it was declared unconstitutional for the law to be applied retroactively.
Since then, lawyers have continued to take advantage of the loopholes still infused into the system to get their criminally indicted clients their pensions.
The latest example is Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) who has served 17 years in the Senate. He faces up to 50 years in federal prison across four charges related to acting as a foreign agent of Egypt and taking bribes while serving as a public official.
Because of the aforementioned legal loopholes, he could still get his pension of about $70,000 per year if convicted of any or all the charges.
Pardons equal Pensions
When Trump was president he pardoned several congressional felons, including former Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) who was found guilty of 17 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy, extortion, racketeering and money laundering.
Other Lawmakers pardoned by Trump:
* Former Rep. Mark D. Siljander (R-MI) who pled guilty to obstruction of justice and money laundering.
* Former Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) who pled guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and making false statements to law enforcement officials.
* Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA) who pled guilty to a count of conspiracy to steal campaign funds.
The good news is there has been steps taken to right this terrible wrong. The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act and Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act are the latest legislation to outline the circumstances that would strip congressional felons of their pensions.
It's worth noting that only certain crimes strictly related to their congressional duties would lead to pension disqualifications.
And that's a problem!
In essence they have a list of crimes they'll go after but are letting the rest of the possible crimes slide.
As it stands, this is just another example of why Americans have lost faith in Congress.
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