Tony
24th October 2003, 01:30 PM
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/10/23/national1326EDT0602.DTL&type=printable ..full article
For the fifth straight year, members of Congress will see a jump in their paychecks in 2004, with election-year salaries rising from the current $154,700 to about $158,000.
The Senate, on a 60-34 vote Thursday, rejected a proposal to exempt senators from a cost-of-living increase going to all civilian federal workers and military personnel. Last month the House, by a similar convincing margin, also turned back an attempt to deny lawmakers an automatic share of the COLA increase.
As in past years, the effort to deny senators their pay raise was led by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who has a policy of returning to the Treasury any pay he receives that is above his salary when he began his six-year term.
"How can Congress give itself a $3,400 pay raise while nearly 9 million people are unemployed, and 2 million have been out of work for more than half a year," Feingold asked.
With the latest increase, he said, members will have received five consecutive pay hikes totaling more than $21,000.
Congressional salaries showed little movement in the 1990s, when Republicans gained majorities in Congress under a platform of curtailing overall government spending, but in recent years lawmakers have accepted their COLAs with little fanfare.
"I think that our representatives of government deserve a pay raise consistent with the work that we've produced," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
"This is not a pay raise. This is an increase that's required by law," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. The question, Stevens said, "is whether the cost-of-living provision in this bill should provide to members as it does to other people who work for the federal government."
But Pete Sepp, vice president of the National Taxpayers Union, a taxpayers' rights group, said the congressional calls "for solidarity in a time of national sacrifice here and abroad ring awfully hollow when lawmakers vote to line their own pockets."
:mad: :mad:
For the fifth straight year, members of Congress will see a jump in their paychecks in 2004, with election-year salaries rising from the current $154,700 to about $158,000.
The Senate, on a 60-34 vote Thursday, rejected a proposal to exempt senators from a cost-of-living increase going to all civilian federal workers and military personnel. Last month the House, by a similar convincing margin, also turned back an attempt to deny lawmakers an automatic share of the COLA increase.
As in past years, the effort to deny senators their pay raise was led by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who has a policy of returning to the Treasury any pay he receives that is above his salary when he began his six-year term.
"How can Congress give itself a $3,400 pay raise while nearly 9 million people are unemployed, and 2 million have been out of work for more than half a year," Feingold asked.
With the latest increase, he said, members will have received five consecutive pay hikes totaling more than $21,000.
Congressional salaries showed little movement in the 1990s, when Republicans gained majorities in Congress under a platform of curtailing overall government spending, but in recent years lawmakers have accepted their COLAs with little fanfare.
"I think that our representatives of government deserve a pay raise consistent with the work that we've produced," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
"This is not a pay raise. This is an increase that's required by law," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. The question, Stevens said, "is whether the cost-of-living provision in this bill should provide to members as it does to other people who work for the federal government."
But Pete Sepp, vice president of the National Taxpayers Union, a taxpayers' rights group, said the congressional calls "for solidarity in a time of national sacrifice here and abroad ring awfully hollow when lawmakers vote to line their own pockets."
:mad: :mad: