María Elvira Salazar’s pledge to donate her congressional salary hits a roadblock

Alex Daugherty, David Smiley

Miami Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar ran ads during her campaign last year declaring that she would donate her entire $174,000 salary to fund a “prosperity center” to help her constituents pay their rent and find jobs.

But on Friday, when Salazar was expected to get her first paycheck as a member of Congress, she said she has had trouble receiving clear guidance from committees that oversee how members of Congress run their offices on whether and how she can proceed with her plans.

“So far, Friday afternoon, from what my staff is telling me, no one has a straight answer because it’s never happened before,” Salazar said. “No one really knows what to do with the prosperity center. It’s the first time a congressional office is going to have a prosperity center.”

Salazar said her staff’s conversations with the House Committee on Ethics have not yet given her clarity on how and whether she can use her salary to supplement her office funds and expand her staff. Late Friday, she provided emails to the Miami Herald with redacted addresses that she said were between her staff and the House Committee on Administration, showing that her office asked for guidance as early as Dec. 4.

One email, on Dec. 7, recommends that members of Congress avoid using their personal funds to pay for personnel. Salazar said Friday that the prosperity center — which she expects to open Feb. 3 within her main district office in Miami at 3961 NW Seventh St. — will be staffed by three people.

“I don’t want to break the rules so I will wait for them,” Salazar said of the ethics and administration committees. “I would like to hire more people or I would like to pay people’s rent if they have a need while they’re finding a job...but I have to do it within the restraints of the United States Congress.”

Salazar also provided the Miami Herald with a screenshot of an online bank account she said she had set up to deposit her paycheck. The account held no money, and Salazar said her paycheck, which she’d set up to be wired through direct deposit, had not yet arrived.

Salazar first vowed to give back her salary as part of an attack ad, as she challenged incumbent Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala last year in Florida’s 27th Congressional District. In the ad, which ran on TV, she said: “Politicians shouldn’t enrich themselves like Donna Shalala. That’s why Maria Elvira Salazar will donate her entire salary.”

She also repeated the salary donation pledge in interviews throughout the campaign.

It’s not unusual for wealthy politicians to donate their salaries. Former President Donald Trump donated his presidential salary four times a year to different federal agencies though he still earned profits from his real estate business. And Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott donates his salary to various charities — in April, for example, it went to medical researchers at the University of South Florida.

But Trump and Scott are multi-millionaires and Salazar isn’t — though she might not be far from it. Her her 2020 federal financial disclosure listed $20,000 in income for TV work, along with a net worth of at least $600,000.

Salazar owes between $1 and $5 million on a residential mortgage, according to her financial disclosure. Federal disclosures require lawmakers to report assets and liabilities in ranges, so a precise accounting of their net worth is impossible.

Salazar also said her prosperity center would be open on weekends, a rarity for a congressional office, to make it more accessible for constituents.

Salazar will likely face a competitive reelection challenge in 2022 in a district that leans Democratic, though the boundary lines could change during the redistricting process that will likely add at least one seat to Florida’s 27 U.S. House districts.

Shalala said Friday she’s considering a rematch against Salazar in 2022 and national Democrats have released digital ads criticizing Salazar’s vote against impeaching former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a sign that the party will spend money on behalf of the eventual Democratic nominee.

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