Ever wonder how your elected representatives spend the money we taxpayers give them to staff and run their operations?

Well, for the first time ever you can access this info online — instead of having to schlep to wherever the mammoth books containing these records were kept in the past.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently ordered the quarterly Statements of Disbursements (SODs) to be published online as a move toward transparency and accountability in government.

Since 1964, Congress has been required  to publish the SOD, which is a quarterly public report of all receipts and expenditures for Members of Congress, Committees, Leadership, House Officers and Offices of the House of Representatives.

In the past, the info was available only in a set of three volumes with more than 3000 pages. The books will continue to be published and distributed by the Government Printing Office to all U.S. Federal Depository Libraries.

The Chief Administrative Officer of the House publishes the SOD within 60 days of the end of the quarter based this  schedule: January-March, April-June, July-September and October-December.

The SOD also includes the individual budgets or Member Representational Allowances (MRAs) for Members of Congress and information on the Members’ Mass Mailings.

Each congressional representative has an MRA of between $1.3 million and $1.9 million. Leaders in Congress get more than the usual allowance. There are plenty of rules and regulations about how the money gets spent and how staffers or vendors get reimbursed or paid.

The SOD isn’t easy reading and there’s a warning on the government’s site that you should review the glossary of terms and FAQ’s about the SOD before you dive in.

But if you want to take a look, visit here.

Tags: allowance, Congressional, Member Representational Allowances, spending, Statement of Disbursement