Congressional records indicate that Congressman Cliff Bentz is relying on publicly-subsidized housing to make ends meet.
He’s been taking taxpayer money apparently to cover his monthly rent in Washington, D.C., while he’s out in the country, using donor money for luxury stays.
The willingness to freely spend tax money carries on to those who work for him. Those Congressional records show his chief of staff staying in $700-a-night hotels last year while on public business. (The average for a night in Oregon is $154, according to hotel booking sites.)
Bentz is strangely shy about discussing such spending. He was provided a document listing key travel costs from 2024. He was offered a chance to explain – or identify any error in the numbers. He didn’t respond to that, a request for receipts or to specific questions from the Enterprise.
Nick Strader, his chief of staff who makes well over $150,000 a year, didn’t respond to questions about his travel expenses. He also didn’t respond to questions about $45,000 in reimbursements for expenses he collected from Bentz’s campaign operation last year.
Bentz and Strader also didn’t directly respond to excerpts of this column sent for their review to ensure accuracy.
The communications director for the office, however, responded to my fact-checking email not by commenting on the information. Rather, Alexia Spentzas said in an email that Bentz’s expenses get reviewed by House officials and he is “fully compliant” with internal rules.
“Congressman Bentz and his team regularly communicate with and follow all guidance from the House of Representatives’ Committee on Ethics,” wrote Spentzas. “This includes the committee’s guidance on both official office practices as well as all campaign activities.”
The bashfulness about explaining the spending stands in stark contrast to the image Bentz projects in his Oregon district.
To hear him talk, he’s a warrior in the battle to control federal spending. In one interview, he went on about the need to “somehow get our spending under control.”
He was offered a chance to explain – or identify any error in the numbers. He didn’t respond.
He signed on to a Republican statement about a budget that “reins in bureaucratic growth at Legislative Branch agencies.” Bentz stood with his Republican colleagues to take credit for a budget that will “change the trajectory of federal spending and put an end to budgetary waste.”
He has adopted President Donald Trump’s mantra about the hunt for “fraud, waste and abuse.”
Bentz doesn’t have to go far in the budgetary jungle to do that. He can look into his own paperwork – just as we did.
Two sources reveal some of his spending. Bentz is required to report each quarter spending by his office. The reports, available online, tell a bit about the expenditure – the date, the amount and the category. Parallel to that are the reports that Bentz must file through his political action committee, showing how he’s using donor money.
Now, keep in mind that Bentz is no pauper. His financial disclosure statements show he owns office buildings in Malheur County and other assets that earn him at least $60,000 a year. He has substantial stock investments. And that’s on top of the $174,000 he’s paid for his job in Congress.
Here’s what the review found.
In April 2024, Bentz charged taxpayers $2,580 for “lodging.” The dates covered – April 1 to April 30 – signal this is not a hotel bill, but rent for his Washington home. Note that few – if any – workers in Malheur County get to charge their employer for the cost of having a home.
But in addition to the monthly rent, Bentz was elsewhere several times during the month – and again hitting taxpayers for the cost. He charged for lodging on April 3 and April 26.
In that same month, his campaign reported paying $1,493 for “VRBO-Texas.” Bentz wouldn’t disclose if this was for him or when that travel actually occurred.
Bentz wouldn’t explain this apparent double dipping, taking from taxpayers and from donors at what appears to be the same time.
Go to May 2024.
Again, Bentz got $2,580 from taxpayers for a month of “lodging.” Again, this would seem to be rent for housing.
In that same month, his campaign reported paying $295 for “VRBO-Texas” and another $1,134 for “Vacasa-Oregon.” Bentz wouldn’t disclose if this was for him or when that travel actually occurred.
Last September, Bentz charged for a full month of lodging, flipping to taxpayers a bill for $2,349. It’s hard to tell, though, how much time he spent at that subsidized housing.
That same month, his campaign reported spending $338 stay at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane, which bills itself as having “elegant accommodations, legendary service and luxurious amenities.” It reported another $1,294 spent or a stay at the Coeur D’Alene Resort, marketed as a “luxury golf and spa resort.” And it reported spending $381 for lodging at Churchill Hotel, which promises “a world of refined luxury.”
Bentz wouldn’t disclose if this was for him or when that travel actually occurred.
Last July, Bentz charged taxpayers just $1,056 for a month of lodging, but he also was on the road at taxpayer expense four nights that month. He stayed someplace that cost the public $559 per night.
Meantime, his campaign reported using donor money for “travel/event” at Black Butte Resort in Central Oregon. The tab: $7,784. For context, the average Malheur County household would have to give up every dime it took in for more than seven weeks to cover such a bill.
Bentz wouldn’t disclose if this was for him or when that travel actually occurred.
No one forced Bentz to go Washington. He plotted for decades to eventually get where he is. He wanted this. He knew there would be costs of being in Congress.
He recently told us through his staff that he was willing to cut his own budget – if told to do so by Congress.
For now, he apparently feels entitled to dip into public treasury to support his lifestyle. And then lard on what appears to be even more lavish living paid for by political donors.
That’s fine – if he was candid about it. Instead, he pulls on the mask of budget warrior when he’s out in public or in interviews with reporters who haven’t done their homework.
Then, he takes off the mask, sharpens his pencil in private and sends the taxpayers yet another bill to pay for costs virtually every Malheur County resident must cover out of their own pockets.
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