The 50 Richest Members of Congress (2008)

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However, he still owns more than $6 million worth of California real estate, among his other holdings.

25. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.)
$11.34 million

Sensenbrenner, who submits one of the lengthiest financial disclosures each year by providing his regular report along with a detailed accounting of his net worth, saw his tally drop by about 3 percent from the previous year.

Much of the Wisconsin lawmaker’s losses come from a downtick in his $6.7 million of investments in stocks and bonds, comprising $1.3 million in Merck & Co. Inc. and significant investments in Exxon Mobil Corp., General Electric Co., Pfizer Inc. and Abbot Laboratories Inc.

He also owns an Alexandria, Va., home valued at $1.5 million and a $1 million interest in a Waukesha County, Wis., home.

Sensenbrenner has also listed $7,800 in travelers checks for the past two years.

26. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.)
$11.20 million

Rehberg increased his net worth by 5 percent in 2007 as the value of his wife’s Billings, Mont., farm increased by $500,000.

The Montanan’s office said Rehberg’s spouse reincorporated the property in preparation to sell it, revising the property value to at least $1 million. The Rehbergs did not ultimately sell the parcel.

Rehberg’s assets also include at least $10 million in ranching and livestock operations and $1 million in Rehberg Ranch Marketing Inc.

He also lists $1.3 million in loan debt for development, construction and agriculture.

27. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
$10.50 million

According to Harkin’s financial disclosure forms, his minimum net worth has essentially doubled since 2006 because of his wife’s purchase of about $5 million worth of stock in 2007.

Harkin’s office wouldn’t comment on where the money for the purchases came from, but the disclosure form indicates that his wife, Ruth, bought and sold “over $1 million” worth of stock in United Technologies Corp., where she used to be a vice president. Harkin’s forms have previously stated that his wife’s compensation from UTC included a “contractual right to receive stock in the future,” so it is possible that she took stock that was owed to her and converted it to other securities.

The assets that are listed as belonging to the Senator alone or through joint ownership have a minimum value of less than $100,000. The Harkins list no liabilities.

28. Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas)
$10.49 million

In 2007, Marchant exchanged several ranch properties for a partnership interest in Bonita Lands and Cattle, a group that holds 3,500 acres, plus cows and equipment. Bonita became the largest asset on his disclosure form for 2007, valued at $5 million to $25 million.

Marchant’s other major assets are rolled into a family partnership called Marken Interests Ltd. The partnership holds 73 acres in Ft. Worth, Texas, which Marchant values at $1 million to $5 million, plus mineral rights and a wide array of stocks.

Marchant also lists more than $3 million in liabilities, but several of those items are mortgages that appear to have been paid off or assumed by Bonita, which would suggest that his net worth has already risen over the total reported on his latest financial disclosure form.

29. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)
$10.39 million

In 2006, in preparation for her White House bid, Clinton closed a blind trust worth $5 million to $25 million, reported its stock holdings and then sold them off because of different disclosure requirements for presidential candidates.

In 2007, her primary assets were two Citibank deposit accounts, each worth $5 million to $25 million, one of which is new. While the disclosure form she prepared for the presidential race indicated a minimum net worth of about $17 million and her current disclosure only tallies about $10 million, the wide ranges reported for the family’s cash accounts could easily accommodate millions more in assets than she gets credit for in this tally.