Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) has collected $81,615 in taxpayer-funded lodging reimbursements for Washington, D.C. housing since 2023, according to House Statements of Disbursements — even as her own financial disclosure puts her net worth as high as $6.46 million.
The payments, filed under budget object code 2107, date back to January 2023, with reimbursements reported through June 2026. The largest single payments include $4,176 for October 2023, $3,354 for March 2023, and another $3,354 for May 2023. Recent reimbursements include $2,744 for January 2025, $2,760 for June 2025, and $2,484 for April 2026.
House leadership created the reimbursement program in late 2022 to help members cover lodging, meals, and incidentals while conducting official business in the capital. The stated purpose was to relieve lawmakers who cannot afford to maintain residences in both Washington and their home districts — a real problem documented in a June 2024 Pop Vox Foundation report, which found some members had resorted to sleeping in their congressional offices for lack of money. Nothing in House rules bars a wealthy member from claiming the same benefit, and Lee’s reimbursements do not by themselves establish any rule violation.
Lee is no stranger to financial disclosure controversy. In September 2021, Business Insider reported she had failed to properly disclose more than 200 stock transactions dating to early 2020, worth an estimated $267,000 to $3.3 million. Her office blamed a third-party money manager who made the trades without her input and said she worked with the House Ethics Committee to file the disclosures late. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust filed an ethics complaint over the matter.
In August 2022, Business Insider reported further late disclosures — eight transactions by Lee and her husband in 2021 worth up to $155,000 — prompting a second FACT complaint arguing lawmakers bear responsibility for timely disclosure regardless of who executes the trades.
A September 2022 New York Times investigation named Lee among 97 members of Congress whose families traded stocks in industries tied to their committee work, flagging six potential conflicts involving pharmaceutical and healthcare stocks while she sat on a committee examining drug pricing and surprise medical billing. Her spokesperson again pointed to the outside money manager.
Overseas Trips on a Dark-Money Group’s Dime
Beyond the D.C. reimbursements, Lee has taken multiple international trips paid for by Center Forward, a bipartisan dark-money organization that has drawn funding from major corporations and the pharmaceutical lobby PhRMA, according to the Detroit News.
Her most recent disclosure shows Center Forward spent $13,765.13 on a June 2026 trip to Amsterdam, including $11,660.13 in transportation and $1,780 in lodging. Lee stayed at the W Amsterdam, a Marriott-branded luxury spa hotel that runs $450 a night.
In June 2025, Center Forward spent $23,868 to send Lee and her adult son to an International Issues Conference in London, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where they stayed at the five-star InterContinental London Park Lane at roughly $290 a night. The House Ethics Committee approved the trip.
A June 2024 trip to an ethics-approved conference in Lisbon cost Center Forward $3,450 for Lee and her daughter, who stayed at The Ivens Hotel at about $300 a night. In total, the three disclosed trips add up to more than $41,000 in Center Forward-funded travel between 2024 and 2026 — on top of the taxpayer-funded D.C. lodging reimbursements.
Lee’s office did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
Political Backdrop
Lee is seeking reelection in Nevada’s Third Congressional District. Republican candidate Dr. Jeff Gunter has criticized her, saying in March that she
