Topline: Taxpayers spent $2 million to feed their senators lunch in 2008, as Capitol restaurants posted their worst-ever net loss that year and dipped into emergency funds.
Senators had to pay for their own meals, but after accounting for payroll and other expenses, their cafeterias lost $2.9 million in 2024 dollars.
That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.
Coburn, the late U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname "Dr. No" by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn't stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.
Coburn's Wastebook 2008 featured 65 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $1.3 billion, including the $2 million restaurant operating deficit.
Key facts: Senators used to dine in cafeterias managed by the government agency Senate Restaurants.
From 1993 to 2008, the restaurants lost over $18 million, forcing taxpayers to provide subsidies. The cafeterias operated at a deficit in 37 of 44 years and averaged an annual loss of $900,000.
The issue wasn’t that senators were paying too little for their meals; a sandwich and chips cost $11.50 in 2008, which is $16.38 today.
But poor business practices meant the Senate needed to take $250,000 from its emergency funds to keep the restaurants open and send paychecks to waitstaff on time.
The Senate voted to privatize its restaurants in June 2008.
But, not to worry: before making the switch, Senators passed a bill to ensure taxpayers would still be on the hook for the old restaurants’ employee pensions, insurance and accrued sick days.
Today, two private companies run seven restaurants for the Senate. One source of consistency: a little-known and poorly understood 1903 mandate requiring bean soup to be on the menu every day continues to be upheld.
Critical quote: “Candidly, I don’t think the taxpayers should be subsidizing something that doesn’t need to be,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein wrote in a 2008 letter. “Financially breaking even has not been the objective of the current management due to an expectation that the restaurants will operate at a deficit annually.”
Summary: Most restaurants would not be able to survive a year of $2 million in losses, let alone several years in the red. Apparently, that same principle does not apply when taxpayer money is at stake.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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