PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 337.
Congressional Research Service
Version 80 · Reported to Senate without amendment · Feb 26, 2018
Presidential Allowance Modernization Act of 2017
This bill amends the Former Presidents Act of 1958 to to revise provisions governing the compensation provided to a former President. Each former President shall receive from the United States: (1) an annuity of $200,000 per year; and (2) a monetary allowance of $500,000 per year for five years beginning six months after the expiration of his or her term, $350,000 per year for the next five years, and $250,000 per year thereafter.
Such annuity and allowance shall be increased each year by the same percentage as Social Security benefits.
Such allowance shall be reduced by the amount the former President's earned income exceeds $400,000.
The bill: (1) limits the office staff provided for each former President to not more than 13 individuals, and (2) requires that suitable office space for a former President be provided on a reimbursable basis.
The bill increases and provides for cost-of-living adjustments to the monetary allowance for surviving spouses of former Presidents.
People & committees
Sen. Ernst, Joni [R-IA] · R–IA
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 337.
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Reported by Senator Johnson without amendment. With written report No. 115-211.
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Reported by Senator Johnson without amendment. With written report No. 115-211.
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Jan 10, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.1791 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.1791 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.1791 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.1791 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.