And by the ‘House’ I mean the ‘Democrats.’ The House Chief Administrative Officer is Dan Beard: he’s the one who made the formal request, we didn’t have a say in his selection, and we’ve been objecting to his rather naked partisanship for years.
Anyway, this time it’s for ‘incumbent protection’ – and by incumbent protection I mean ‘keeping the Democrats at their troughs‘:
The House wants to increase Members’ office budgets next fiscal year by almost 15 percent, partly because 2010 is an election year and lawmakers anticipate a surge in franked mail.
[snip]
“It’s an incredibly naked admission that Members of Congress abuse the franking privilege for electoral purposes, even though the rules say they don’t,” said Pete Sepp, spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union. “This sends the worst possible message not only to the taxpayers, but to the electoral system as a whole.”