. >> reporter: despite all the talk about economic hard times from lawmakers, the centers for responsive politics has found the median net worth for a congress member is now at $1,008,767 meaning for the first time over 50% are millionaires. that's a lot because when you think about the rest of the population only 3% of us can call ourselves millionaires. look who has all the money in congress. leading the list is darrell issa with a net worst of $464 million. you can go to virginia to find the top democrat, mark warner, $257 million. another democrat, jared pollis from colorado, $197 million. this is based upon their income for 2012 on their tax returns. congressional democrats overall are slightly richer than their republican colleagues and senators are much richer than members of the house. democrat harry reid is worth over $4 million. speaker of the house republican john boehner has about half a million less than that. still, they all get salaries a regular member of congress gets $174,000 a year from the taxpayers or about four times as much as an average american earns in the same period of

center of a genetic modification scandal. the majority of congress are now millionaires for the first time in history according to the center for responsive politics which sounds pretty insulting when the average american is not doing so well financially this seems bad like a bunch of rich guys rule the country which they kind of do but one could argue that congress isn't rich enough first off due to inflation a billion dollars is not as much as it used to be especially the cost of one campaign to get in a congress costs around one million six hundred thousand dollars so yeah a million dollars of net worth may sound pretty rich to you or me but the expensive game of us politics these guys can't even afford the costs related to getting the work electoral campaigns are a big money affair so it is no surprise that people like you or me can't get into the law making business without selling at least a little piece of our souls to someone who has very deep pockets so again the problem isn't that congressmen are wealthy it is that many of them have to get constant financing in order to maintain their positions and as you average folks know once you're i

more than half of congress have a net worth of a cool million, according to the center for responsive politics. the most ever in history. the research comes as lawmakers debate issues such as unemployment benefits and minimum wage. the chemical company that's the source of a leak contaminating tap water in charleston, west virginia and nine surrounding counties says it's working to prevent further contamination. but about 300-thousand people were told to use water only for flushing, this past weekend. a 48-thousand gallon tank filled with the compound m-c-h-m, which can cause digestive and breathing problems, was found leaking from freedom industries into the elk river, last thursday.the coal treatment facility is about a mile upstream from the state's largest water treatment plant.stores ran out of bottled water, within hours and numerous businesses closed. salvage companies from 6 nations are bidding for a contract to dismantle the costa concordia. the ship capsized in january of 2012 and remains stuck off the north west coast of italy. it was righted last september. the plan is to tow away

majority of congress are now millionaires for the first time in history according to the center for responsive politics which sounds pretty insulting when the average american is that doing so well financially this seems bad like a bunch of rich guys rule the country which they kind of do but one could argue the congress isn't rich enough first off due to inflation a billion dollars is not as much as it used to be especially the cost of a campaign to get in the congress costs around one million six hundred thousand dollars so you're a million dollars of net worth may sound pretty rich to you or me but the expensive game of us politics these guys can't even afford the costs related to getting a work electoral campaigns are a big money affair so it is no surprise that people like you or me can't get into the law making business without selling at least a little piece of our souls to someone who has very deep pockets so again the problem isn't that congressmen are wealthy it is that many of them have to get constant financing in order to maintain their positions and as you average folks know once you're i

the center for responsible politics says of the 534 members currently in the house and senate, at least 268 of them had an average net worth of $1 million or more. that's just over 50%. now, topping the list, the richest member of congress, republican congressman darrel issa of california chairman of the house oversight committee. he made a fortune in the car alarm business and is worth $464 million. >> that's amazing. more than half are millionaires now. >> and the senate richer than the house. republicans richer than democrats. just saying. >> all right. >> no political commentary. that's "nightly buzz report" for tonight. i'm susie gaharib. thanks for watching. >> we'll hope to see you back here tomorrow night. >>> "nightly business report" has been brought to you in part by the street.com. up to the minute stock market news and in-depth analysis. our rating service provides objective, independent ratings daily on over 4300 stocks. learn more at the street.com/npr. >> am i your first official patient? >> uh, indeed you are, yes. collect a thousand loyalty points, you get a free coffi

268, my friend, out of 534 members today, according to a new study by the nonpartisan center for responsive politicsolitics, right? >> a couple of benjamins. >> don't do it. >>> the toronto zoo has something that might melt your heart after this week's deep freeze. new video showing a polar bear cub taking his first steps. he struggles at it. born in november this little guy weighs 9.7 pounds. this baby bear is a fighter. he's the only one in his litter to survive the critical first three months of life. go get them, kid. the zoo says he's happy, playful and full of life. >> what would you rather be, a millionaire in congress or a zookeeper taking care of this guy? >> in toronto taking care of that guy, until he becomes an adult, like 1,200 pounds. >> then just hugs. >>> a look ahead and a look back. the latest employment report this morning at 8:30 eastern. the labor department reports on the december jobs numbers. expectations are for about 196,000 new jobs created with the unemployment rate staying at 7%. >>> on this day in 1964, the first release of a beatles album in the u.s., introducing with

campaign contributions and then legally shell out the dough to candidates according to the center for responsive politics during the two thousand and twelve cycle in which outside spending top one billion dollars for the first time super pacs accounted for more than nine hundred million dollars of that spending so looking back at the last four years with the notion that corporations are people and money is speech where does that leave them. ocracy to break it down i'm doing my arty political commentator sound sex my hands are going well i'm sam so how many decades of campaign finance law did citizens united completely abolish well you can go all the way back to the tillman act of one nine hundred seventy you passed out of the robber baron era when the tycoons of industry were buying off politicians basically outlawed all corporate spending in elections and contributions to to politicians you could go to nine hundred forty seven taft hardly act which been corporations and banned unions from spending money directly in elections you can go to a series of laws passed out of the watergate area and then more m

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