that works out to like 830 bucks a month, still incredibly cheap for a room in a fancy town house with meals and housekeeping. but other people who lived at c street or who live there now keep saying this. it s just this room. i just have this one room there. is it your understanding they have access to all the common space of this giant mansion too? yeah. there s a big, beautiful big screen tv down in the main common space, there s a beautiful dining room used for hosting formal banquets, there s a lovely breakfast nook, also used as a conference room. there s a beautiful kitchen. it s really a space that almost doubles as a conference center. and also doubles, frankly, as a hangout for washington congressman zach wamp, said this is the place to hang out, talk policy, watch sports. i recently spoke to a young woman, a young evangelical woman, thought she was going to do an internship in washington,
congress were really paying market based rent? oh, absolutely not. it s a beautiful place, and in fact, you go in there, as you mention there s maid service, there s a cook, they re hosting diplomatic meetings there. they re not bringing in ambassadors to sit on jerry moran s box spring. it s a luxury place. the fact is they know that. if you go back in 2002, lewis sheldon, christian right leader, said a lot of congressmen don t have $1500 to pay for rent, to c street does that for them. for those who are members of the fellowship, it provides this subsidized housing. when we talked to senator coburn s office about this, his spokesman defended the rent situation for senator coburn by saying he hasn t received subsidized rent, he pays more than $10,000 a year for a room and bathroom only. that works out to like 830 bucks a month, still incredibly cheap