Mark Souder: “I would like to make several points: First off, that committee staff knows there are elections every 2 years, too. I was…”

“I would like to make several points: First off, that committee staff knows there are elections every 2 years, too. I was a staff director in the minority before we became the majority and when the ranking member changed, all staff loses their job whether there has been an election or not. Yes, you could take your personal accounts for the losing Members and cover some. But the fact is so could committees. If they withheld funds, they could have done it as well. I lose five staff. They have been very close to me. Many of them have been personal friends. They have had 2 months. It would be nice if they could have the extra months, but it is no more their right as higher-paid staff than personal office staff. We are not arguing to spend even more money. We are saying, how did you come up with the double standard? Why do leadership staff get the dollars, why do committee staff get the dollars and not the personal office? The budgets are the same. The elections are the same. You know the risks. In fact, for a committee the risks are higher, because you could change your ranking member, you could change your chairman. You could have your chairman switch subcommittees and the staff change. This is the nature of the business. I think it is great to be generous with your own dollars, but when you're generous with the taxpayers' dollars, there are obligations with that. At the very least, there should have been a discussion. There should have been hearings. We hear that all the time.…”