Maria Elvira Salazar promised to fund a ‘prosperity center.’ Her plans changed.

During her 2020 campaign for Congress, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar promised to run a different kind of congressional office.

The Miami Republican told voters and media outlets of a plan “unlike any other congressional office” to fund a “prosperity center” with her $174,000 salary, using her paycheck to pay for additional staff who would provide job training resources and steer federal contracts to small businesses interested in providing services to the government.

But two months into the job, Salazar says she can’t fully honor her campaign promise due to congressional ethics rules. On Friday, Salazar is expected to receive her second paycheck as a member of Congress, a sum of about $7,700 after taxes. For now, the money will sit in a bank account until Salazar decides what to do with it.

“The government doesn’t let me do what I promised I was going to do,” Salazar said in an interview. “I have to work on a plan. I have not worked on that plan yet.”

Salazar said she wanted to use the money to directly pay for additional staff, which wasn’t allowed. Then, she inquired about donating her salary to her own congressional budget, which wasn’t allowed, either. Finally, she asked if her salary could fund bonuses for staff who take on additional case work for the prosperity center, which again violated the rules.

“I can’t hire more than 18 people plus four part-timers,” Salazar said, adding that the House Ethics Committee knows her well because she’s called them so many times. “I’m not going to go against any of the rules.”

But Salazar said that while she can’t boost her congressional office with her salary, the prosperity center idea has been incorporated into the job responsibilities of her staffers. Her 18 employees are equally split between Miami and Washington, she said.

Salazar’s congressional office has opened 405 traditional constituent cases since she assumed office in January, according to her district director, Daniel Leyte-Vidal. Those cases, which typically involve issues with federal agencies like the Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, are part of every Congress member’s workload.

Even though Salazar can’t use her salary to fund a prosperity center, which is simply an extra set of job responsibilities within her existing office, she said her staff has added additional casework related to employment.

Leyte-Vidal said an additional 60 cases have come to the office through the prosperity center, which is designed to help constituents find employment, job training resources or obtain a contract for services from the federal government.

During her campaign, Salazar also promised to open her offices on nights and weekends. In an interview, she said her Little Havana office is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays and by appointment on Sundays. There are satellite offices in Cutler Bay and Miami Beach that are open by appointment.

Salazar, who wasn’t sworn into office on Jan. 3rd with the other new members of Congress as she recovered from COVID, also said her predecessor, Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala, made it harder for her office to begin casework after Shalala did not share existing cases with Salazar’s new staff. Salazar and Shalala have campaigned against each other twice, and may run against each other again in 2022.

In an interview on Friday, Shalala said she hasn’t ruled out a 2022 run for her old seat.

“I think its only fair for you to stress that I’m not misleading the community,” Salazar said. “Donna did not give the cases that I asked her office to provide.”

Leyte-Vidal said they were provided with information on two cases during the transition period by Shalala’s office. An additional “eight to 10” people reached out to say they were previously working with Shalala on an ongoing case, Leyte-Vidal said.

In response, Shalala said Salazar “didn’t have her office set up” during the transition period. Shalala also said that privacy laws prevented her staff from passing along casework without the consent of the constituent.

“We had a lot of cases that weren’t closed yet,” Shalala said. “Many of the people knew that our caseworkers were going to work for [Rep.] Carlos Gimenez, a lot of people were hired by Gimenez.”

Shalala noted that her office was one of 10 finalists for a constituent service award in 2020 from the Congressional Management Foundation. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio won the award for best constituent service from the same group in 2019.

But Salazar, who has already been the subject of attacks by Democrats ahead of a 2022 election cycle that is expected to be competitive, said other policy issues like immigration require her attention in addition to the prosperity center.

She hasn’t figured out how she will spend her salary yet but said whatever she does with the money will help people find work.

“Right now I’m working on a plan so we can help people get jobs,” Salazar said. “If I have to do this as a private citizen, this takes time, and I never thought I was going to go through that.”