After Scandal, Congress Weighs Crackdown

House leaders are considering sweeping changes to Congress’ reimbursement requirements in the wake of the Aaron Schock scandal, including forcing lawmakers to provide more detailed documentation about how they spend taxpayer money and disclosing those details to the public.
The overhaul would mark the first official policy change on Capitol Hill in response to Schock’s alleged misspending of taxpayer money. The Illinois Republican resigned after POLITICO revealed he had received reimbursement for thousands of miles his vehicle apparently didn’t travel.
Though the internal congressional review is ongoing, one change under consideration would require lawmakers to provide more detailed evidence of expenses in order to receive a reimbursement. Perhaps the most drastic change the committee could consider is to compel members of Congress to publicly disclose the details of each purchase by their office. The institution did that before 2010, but now purchases are detailed only in broad categories.