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Johnson’s ‘home’ at office may violate the rules
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U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson of Poland, R-6th
POLAND
Freshman U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson is looking to move from his home in Poland to Washington County.
But when it comes to another Washington — the city located in the District of Columbia — Johnson, R-6th, already has a home: his congressional office.
Johnson is among 33 members of the House — 26 Republicans and seven Democrats — identified by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit government ethics watchdog organization, as possibly violating House and IRS rules by living in their offices.
“House office buildings are not dorms or frat houses,” said Melanie Sloan, the organization’s executive director. “If members didn’t want to find housing in Washington, they shouldn’t have run for Congress in the first place.”
CREW is asking the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate not only the legality of House members using their offices as housing, but if they’re violating tax law by failing to report lodging as a taxable fringe benefit.
In response, Jessica Towhey, Johnson’s spokeswoman, said, “While CREW may hold the opinion that congressmen should live in Washington, Congressman Johnson serves his constituents here and lives in Ohio. Besides, he’s practicing what he preaches about being fiscally responsible by not taking on rent on top of his mortgage back home in eastern Ohio.”
Rank-and-file members of the U.S. House such as Johnson, receive $174,000 in annual salary.
There have been some congressional members in the past who’ve slept in their offices and use showers at the House gym as Johnson and others are doing now.
CREW contends living in a House office violates the prohibition on using taxpayer resources for anything other than the performance of official duties.
Also, under Internal Revenue Service code, members who sleep in their offices are receiving a taxable benefit and must pay taxes based on the fair-market value of their lodging, according to a CREW statement.
Members of Congress and their staff must pay taxes on the fair-market value of their reserved parking spaces so they should be required to pay taxes for using their offices as their Washington, D.C., place of residence, Sloan said.
“If legislators are going to treat their offices as dorm rooms, at the very least they should pay the appropriate taxes,” she said.
The Vindicator reported in December that Johnson is trying to sell his Poland house, which isn’t in the 6th District, and move to Washington County, the heart of his congressional district. Johnson has lived in Poland, about two miles from the 6th District, since June 2006. He has family in Washington County.