# Congresspeople sleeping in their offices **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 6, 2018, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congresspeople-sleeping-in-their-offices/810122 "2018-03-06T16:49:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 24
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congresspeople-sleeping-in-their-offices/810122/24 "2018-03-06T19:00:52Z")
Greatly increase the size of the House of Representatives, such that every seat represents approximately the same number of people. Greatly decrease the size (and funding) for Congressional staffing – with a much larger Congress, representatives themselves could perform lots of the functions (research, communication, etc.) that their staffs do now, which would keep funding levels roughly the same. I did some basic math in an earlier thread below: > [@Constitutional Maximum for the House](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constitutional-maximum-for-the-house/795035/12): > > According to the link below, each Congressional office gets between $1 and 2 million for their office budget. If we average that at $1.5 million, then that’s about 435\*1.5 = $652 million that goes to House office budgets (not including salaries for the Reps themselves). Let’s say we increased the House tenfold, to about 4000 members – with the same budget for staff – $652 million / 4000 = $163K per office. That’s enough for, say, two mid-income (~$60K) staffers plus travel expenses, perhaps. > > [How much does it cost to run a congressional office? - Las Vegas Sun News](https://lasvegassun.com/news/2013/mar/13/how-much-does-it-cost-run-congressional-office/) Adding on to this, refurbish some DC gov buildings into a Congressional dormitory for when congress is in session. Nothing fancy, just basic small apartment housing. Just as an idea, anyway. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congresspeople-sleeping-in-their-offices/810122)._