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The cost-of-living raise get lawmakers back on track for automatic pay raises after a fight between Democrats and Republicans last year and again in January killed the pay hike due this year. That was the first interruption of the annual congressional pay hike in seven years.
The blowup came after Democrats last year fulfilled a campaign promise to deny themselves a pay hike until Congress raised the minimum wage. Delays in the minimum wage bill cost every lawmaker about $3,100 this year.
On Wednesday, Democratic and GOP leaders maneuvered behind the scenes to line up votes to kill a bid by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to get a direct vote to block the COLA, which is automatically awarded unless lawmakers vote to block it.
A vote in the House was expected Wednesday evening. The Senate has not indicated when it will deal with a similar measure.
As part of an ethics reform bill in 1989, Congress gave up its ability to accept pay for speeches and made annual cost-of-living pay increases automatic unless the lawmakers voted otherwise.
In the early days of GOP control of Congress, lawmakers routinely denied themselves the annual COLA.
Under the annual COLA, lawmakers automatically get a pay hike unless Congress votes to block it. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., worked to smooth the way for the pay hike.
Most members support the pay raise as a means of retaining experienced lawmakers and of making sure that Congress is not simply dominated by wealthy people. Many lawmakers maintain homes both in the expensive Washington housing market and back in their districts. On most days, they meet with lobbyists making far more than they do.
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 "Every member has some obligation to the institution for the compensation to, as much as possible, keep pace with inflation," Blunt told reporters Wednesday. "I think this should be as good of a job when I leave it as it was when I took it."
Typically, the annual vote on the pay hike comes on an obscure procedural move
-- instead of a direct up-or-down vote -- and the Democratic and GOP whips each delivered a roughly equal number of votes to shut off any move to block the pay hike.
The exact figure for this year's COLA has not been settled under a complicated formula that awards lawmakers a smaller pay hike than civil servants. But opponents of the congressional COLA estimated a pay hike this year of 2.7 percent, or $4,460.
Both House members and senators presently make $165,200 a year, with a handful of leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., earning more.
The pay raise would also apply to the vice president -- who is president of the Senate
-- congressional leaders and Supreme Court justices.
This year, Vice President Dick Cheney, Pelosi and Chief Justice John Roberts receive $212,100. Associate justices receive $203,000. House and Senate party leaders get $183,500.
President Bush's salary of $400,000 is unaffected by the legislation.
[Associated
Press] |
