01-12-2008, 01:17 AM
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Lawmakers include themselves in federal pay raise
Quote:
The House on Thursday approved a 2.2% pay raise for Congress — slightly less than average wage increases in private business but enough to boost lawmakers' annual salaries to about $158,000 next year.
The House members decided to allow themselves a fifth straight cost-of-living raise after rejecting them for several years during the 1990s. Their annual pay has risen from $136,700 in 1999 to about $158,000 in 2004, if the legislation clears Congress and is signed by the president. Their salary this year is $154,700.
As in past years, the congressional COLA was automatically included as part of pay increases that all federal civilian and military employees will receive. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wages among all nongovernment workers rose an average 2.7% from July 2002 through June 2003.
Both the House and Senate, ignoring a White House recommendation that civilian pay raises be held down next year, have decided on 4.1% raises for almost all federal workers.
The pay increases are part of an $89.3 billion spending bill for the 2004 budget year for Transportation and Treasury Department programs. A vote on the spending bill was expected late Thursday. The spending bill has yet to reach the Senate floor.
Only one House member — Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah — voiced objections to the congressional increase during the debate.
"We are fighting terrorism on numerous fronts and our economy is in serious trouble, unemployment is at record high levels and our future budget deficits are predicted to be the highest in the history of this great nation," Matheson said. "Now is not the time for members of Congress to be voting themselves a pay raise."
By a 240-173 vote, the House rejected Matheson's procedural attempt to get a direct vote on the pay raise for lawmakers. In 1989, Congress voted to make cost-of-living pay increases for themselves automatic unless they voted otherwise.
Without counting outside sources of income, the earnings of members of Congress rank within the top 5% of the nation.
Joan Claybrook, president of the consumer group Public Citizen, said lawmakers, as high-income earners, were already benefiting substantially from the administration-backed tax cuts that have been enacted. She said that while she didn't necessarily oppose cost-of-living increases for members of Congress, "I do think that to give tax breaks to the rich while giving themselves a pay raise is unfair."
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U.S. Breaking News
I couldn't help but notice this as it clicked across the ticker, in line with such news bits as: Stocks Drop...Crude Oil prices raise...
Does anyone in congress feel the irony? |
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