<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div class="original-url" style="font-size: 17px;"><span style="color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.25em; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Congressional Seats Sell for Record Four Billion Dollars</span></div><div class="original-url" style="font-size: 17px;"><span style="color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.25em; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br></span></div><div id="article" role="article" style="text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border-bottom-width: 0px; font-size: 17px;"><div class="page" style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia, Palatino, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 25px; max-width: 100%;"><span data-attr="8" data-ma="10" data-bt="ALLOW_ACCESS" data-rv="false" data-sub="" style="max-width: 100%;"></span><a name="/2" data-total-words="0" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%;"></a><a name="/1" data-total-words="0" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%;"></a><p word_count="34" style="max-width: 100%;"><b style="max-width: 100%;">WASHINGTON</b> —Congressional seats are on pace to fetch a whopping four billion dollars on Tuesday night, a record-smashing sales figure that has exceeded the expectations of even the most optimistic insiders.</p><p word_count="34" style="max-width: 100%;">The seats, which include four hundred and thirty-five in the House of Representatives and thirty-six in the Senate, have attracted buyers from a broad spectrum of industries, including investment banking, energy, pharmaceutical, and gun.</p><p word_count="50" style="max-width: 100%;">“With all of the uncertainty in the world today, the United States Congress is considered a very safe place for the rich to invest their money,” said Charles Michollot, of the auction house Sotheby’s. “Congressional seats are like Manhattan real estate—they aren’t making any more of them.”</p><p word_count="52" style="max-width: 100%;">But Anton Pickardin, of the rival auction house Christie’s, sounds more skeptical. “I hate to be a wet blanket, but these sales figures lack rhyme and reason,” Pickardin said. “When someone is willing to pay millions of dollars for a pre-owned Mitch McConnell, you know that people have lost their minds.”</p><p word_count="39" style="max-width: 100%;">But Sotheby’s Michollot remains confident that, even at these hefty prices, congressional seats are a wise investment. “When these seats go up for sale again, in 2016, four billion dollars is going to look like a bargain,” he said.</p></div></div></body></html>