Illinois' Adam Andrzejewski has published a report that shows the federal government is even bigger and costlier than we think. The report titled "Mapping The Swamp" was produced by Open The Books, an independent nonprofit that tracks federal spending using the government’s own numbers. Andrzejewski is the founder and CEO.
“Mapping The Swamp” may be the most comprehensive and creative report ever compiled on the true size and cost of the federal government. These 10 findings highlight the hundreds of previously undisclosed facts contained in the report.
1.) Federal workers are paid $1.1 million a minute, $66 million every hour, and $524 million each day.
2.) The number of federal workers paid more than $200,000 annually increased 165 percent between 2010 and 2016, those making $150,000 or more by 60 percent, and those getting $100,000 or more by 37 percent.
3.) More than 400,000, or roughly one of every five, federal workers makes a six-figure income. Nearly 30,000 of them are paid more than all 50 state governors.
4.) On average, federal workers get 10 paid holidays, 13 paid sick days and 20 paid vacation days each year. If all of them took full advantage of their paid leave, it would cost taxpayers more than $22 billion.
5.) Hundreds of federal workers get cash bonuses every year. The highest such bonus last year went to a human resources manager who received $141,525!
6.) More than 35,000 lawyers are employed by the federal government but only a third of them work for the Department of Justice. Collectively, the government lawyers were paid $4.8 billion in 2016.
7.) There are 3,498 police officers working for the Department of Veterans Affairs at a cost of $172 million. But officials there can’t provide data for the number or kinds of crimes committed on VA property.
8.) Pay averaged $100,000 or more at 78 of the 122 independent agencies and departments examined for the swamp report.
9.) Between them, the USPS and the VA employ more than half of the total federal workforce covered by the report.
10.) There are an additional two million federal workers at the Department of Defense and the U.S. military.
Download a copy of the report HERE.
