With all the tuxedos, limousines and swank dinner parties associated with life on Capitol Hill, it's no wonder that so many Americans view their congressman and senators as members of a self-anointed elite. The U.S. Senate often is referred to as a "millionaire's club," with scions of the Rockefeller, Corzine and Kennedy families among the members. The U.S. House of Representatives has its own cadre of the trust-fund rich as well as wealthy lawyers, businessmen, actors and former professional athletes. But there is a substantial number of lawmakers whose political power far outstrips their personal wealth.

True, federal lawmakers do a good deal better than average Americans. Congressional salaries and perks exceed $150,000. But members must maintain two households--one in the pricey Washington area and another in their home districts. Some actually sleep in their Washington offices or bunk two, three or four to an apartment.

While some successful candidates for national office are multimillionaires who finance their own campaigns, others come from modest backgrounds. INSIGHT took a look at some of Capitol Hill's more frugal political figures and discovered that roaming the halls of Congress is not as financially rewarding as it's cracked up to be.

The rise to power of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) is one of the most impressive in political history and, except for a stint with the Ku Klux Klan, the story is not one he shies away from telling. Earlier this year he engaged in a highly publicized fracas with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill during a Senate hearing at which the two men tried to outdo one another with po-mouth stories of growing up ragged and hungry.

Byrd's biography, found on his Website (http://byrd.senate.gov), is titled "From Humble Beginnings to West Virginian of the Century." The 2002 edition of the Almanac of American Politics confirms this sentiment, noting that "From a background as grindingly poor as that of any American politician, he has continually moved up with awesome persistence." Born in 1917, Byrd was raised by his aunt and uncle in West Virginia after his mother died when he was 1 year old. Growing up, he worked odd jobs including a stint as a meat cutter and as a shipyard welder during World War II. He was elected to the state House of Delegates in 1946, the state Senate in 1950, the U.S. House of Representatives in 1952 and finally the U.S. Senate in 1958.