Rep. Miller-Meeks spent as much as $26,000 in taxpayer funds to rent DC apartment from pharma lobbyists

While sitting on a House subcommittee that oversees drug pricing, Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks was renting her DC apartment from lobbyists paid millions to fight prescription drug cost reforms on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry. 

Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks rented a Washington, D.C. apartment from two lobbyists whose firm was paid $1.8 million to lobby Congress on behalf of one of the pharmaceutical industry’s main trade groups. Records from the US House of Representatives show she used $26,000 in congressional office funds to pay for housing in DC. 

Miller-Meeks rented a row house apartment in Washington, DC’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, just two blocks south of the Capitol. Her landlords, Carlyle “Carl” Thorsen and James “Alec” French, are two lobbyists who frequented The Hill’s list of Washington’s top lobbyists. The pair founded Washington, DC lobbying firm Thorsen French Advocacy, which made nearly $2 million lobbying on behalf of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). 

Both Thorsen and a spokesperson for Miller-Meeks separately confirmed the relationship to Iowa Starting Line. 

“Ms. Miller-Meeks is a former tenant who paid a fair market rent for a basement studio apartment at a property that Mr. French and I co-own personally,” Thorsen wrote in an email. 

A campaign spokesperson added that Miller-Meeks “rented a basement apartment near the Capitol at fair market value in accordance with House ethics rules,” and that the lease has since been terminated. The campaign declined to make the lease available for review, saying standard residential leases are not reported on financial disclosure forms. A spokesperson also declined to say for how long the lease lasted.

Miller-Meeks sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health and chairs the Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Health. Over the course of her career, she has taken $264,498 from the pharmaceutical industry, according to Open Secrets. She was widely criticized during her 2024 campaign for taking money from insulin manufacturer Eli Lilly & Co’s corporate PAC the same day she voted against capping insulin prices for seniors in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Thorsen said that neither he nor French ever communicated with Miller-Meeks or her staff about their lobbying work during her tenancy. The campaign echoed that, saying neither individual has ever lobbied the Congresswoman about any issue and that she only met to sign the lease.

While the lease was not made available, the House does publish an account of funds used for office expenditures, including lodging. A review of these records found Miller-Meeks reimbursed herself $26,796 from her congressional office budget for lodging between January 2023 and September 2025. 

January 2023 was the first month these funds were available under a 2023 rule change. Under it, members can voluntarily use taxpayer-funded office budgets to cover DC lodging costs; money that is otherwise used for staff salaries, office expenses, travel, and constituent services. The system was designed to offset the cost of maintaining a second living arrangement in Washington, DC. Miller-Meeks used that system to reimburse herself for her rent payments. 

On average, Miller-Meeks asked for $1,600 in the 16 times she requested reimbursements. Rent for comparable apartments near the Capitol typically runs around $2,500 a month, according to real estate data from Zillow—though Thorsen described the unit as a 460-square-foot basement studio. The apartment is listed online for $1,500 a month. 

Miller-Meeks’ rental agreement with Thorsen and French does not appear anywhere in her annual House financial disclosure reports for 2023 or 2024—the two filing years that cover the period in question. Those filings, which she certified as “true, complete, and correct,” list her investment accounts, her mortgage on an out-of-district property in Ottumwa, and other financial relationships in detail, but contain no reference to Thorsen, French, or the Capitol Hill apartment. 

Iowa Starting Line reviewed all of Miller-Meeks’ financial disclosures dating back to her first filing in 2020—none of them reference the rental arrangement.

Miller-Meeks’ campaign spokesperson maintained that there was no issue with the use of funds for the apartment or its ownership by registered Pharma lobbyists. 

From 2011 to 2025, Thorsen French Advocacy received $30,000 per quarter—$1.8 million in total—from PhRMA, according to US Senate lobbying disclosure records. The firm specifically lobbied on “issues related to drug pricing.” The firm lobbied against the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act and the Drug Competition Enhancement Act, two bipartisan bills aimed at lowering drug costs by targeting practices employed by the pharmaceutical industry. 

When French retired last year, the firm’s name was changed to Radius Advocacy. There, Thorsen, who was counsel for the House Judiciary committee and formerly worked for House Republican leaders, continues to work out of the same rowhouse he rented to the Iowa Congresswoman. 

The housing subsidy was recommended by a House Committee in 2022 under Democratic leadership and implemented in 2023 under Republicans. It has never received a vote in Congress. 

A 2024 Wall Street Journal analysis of House data found that just over half of House members have reimbursed themselves under the program. Only a quarter reimbursed for $20,000 or more. Between January 2023 and February 2024, US Rep. Randy Feenstra was the only member of Iowa’s delegation not to take the subsidy. US Rep. Ashley Hinson took $22,148. US Rep. Zach Nunn took $2,123. Democrats also used the funds. For example, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was reimbursed for $31,392 in the first two years. 

While legal under House rules, members using this subsidy have come under fire from Democrats and Republicans alike. 

“I just sleep in my office, and I’ll save taxpayers the hassle,” US Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, told the Journal.

Former US Rep. Dave Loebsack, a Democrat who represented much of Miller-Meeks’ district, said the arrangement with lobbyists reflects poor judgment regardless of its legality.

“If I were in Congress, for the life of me, I wouldn’t rent from a lobbyist,” Loebsack told Iowa Starting Line. “Why would I want to tie myself to a lobbyist? It’s a judgment issue. Don’t care if it’s a Democrat or a Republican.”

Loebsack was in Congress from 2007 to 2021, a period that predates the housing subsidy for House members. He said it was common for members to live in their offices or rent further from Capitol Hill to avoid exactly this kind of entanglement.

“These things she’s done may or may not be illegal, but they don’t smell good,” Loebsack said. “I just think, especially in a competitive race, it’s the last thing I would have done.”