(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Before he officially leaves office on Friday, Congressman Jason Chaffetz decided to leave us District residents sputtering at least once more.

The Utah congressman, who served as the chairman of the House committee that oversees the District, is now calling for a housing stipend for federal lawmakers because the the rent in D.C. is just too damn high.

“Washington D.C., is one of the most expensive places in the world, and I flat-out cannot afford a mortgage in Utah, kids in college and a second place here in Washington, D.C.,” Chaffetz said in an interview with The Hill. “I think a $2,500 housing allowance would be appropriate and a real help to have at least a decent quality of life in Washington if you’re going to expect people to spend hundreds of nights a year here.”

Chaffetz, who famously lives in his office and justifies his meddling in D.C. because he’s been to every Five Guys in the city, isn’t wrong about the high cost of living here. Indeed, even as the city sees the most housing construction activity in decades, those new units are largely targeted to renters willing to shell out big bucks for lifestyle amenities, leaving lower income residents in extreme need of places to live.

Chaffetz acknowledges that “in today’s climate, nobody’s going to suggest or vote for a pay raise.” But the $2,500 monthly stipend is just that—and it amounts to $30,000 per lawmaker annually, for a total cost to taxpayers of $16 million a year, per The Hill, on top of the $174,000 Congressional salary.

It’s all a bit rich for a congressman who said that Americans have to make tough choices when it comes to their finances. “Maybe rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care. They’ve got to make those decisions themselves,” he said in March.

But perhaps the best argument against the stipend is that it might have encouraged Chaffetz to stay in office longer.