Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s perk costs taxpayers $1 million

Here's today's big front page story in the Chicago Tribune:

Former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has plowed through about $1 million in taxpayer dollars in the last two years for an office and staff in west suburban Yorkville, thanks to a little-known perk given to ex-speakers.

Hastert, 68, a lobbyist and business consultant who retired from Congress in 2007, has hired three of his former staffers at salaries of more than $100,000 apiece to run the publicly financed office.

Taxpayers also are paying monthly rent of $6,300 to a company partly owned by three sons of a Hastert mentor and business partner. Other public funds go for an $860-a-month 2008 GMC Yukon leased from a dealership owned by a Hastert friend and campaign donor.

Federal law allows former House speakers to maintain a taxpayer-funded office anywhere in the United States for up to five years. The purpose is to "facilitate the administration, settlement and conclusion of matters pertaining to or arising out of" a former speaker's tenure in the House.

Hastert is not allowed to use the office for his moneymaking ventures, including lobbying for the countries of Turkey and Luxembourg, sitting on the board of Chicago-based financial giant CME Group Inc. and giving speeches with an asking price of $25,000.

Hastert declined to be interviewed for this story, but spokesman Brad Hahn said the Republican ex-speaker keeps his business ventures separate from the operation of his Yorkville office.

Dennis Hastert, a member of the rent seeking hall of fame.