A 1,547-page spending deal was released Tuesday night will give members of Congress a raise.
The lame-duck continuing resolution (CR) unveiled just three days before a potential government shutdown strips a provision included in spending bills since 2009 to block automatic raises for Congress, effectively giving senators and House members a raise.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the top Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, explained in 2023 that the so-called “Member Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) automatically takes effect unless it is blocked.”
“News flash: a COLA is a pay increase for Members of Congress,” she stated unequivocally.
Congress often cleverly rebrands politically toxic items like congressional pay raises, as when they began referring to earmarks as “congressionally directed spending.”
This is not the first time in recent memory Congress has taken advantage of a last-minute lame-duck spending bill to benefit itself.
In the 2022 lame-duck spending bill, Congress snuck in a provision to allow reimbursement for a number of living expenses, including lodging, food, and travel while on the job in Washington, DC.
According to the New York Times, individual members could be reimbursed up to about $34,000 in the first year.
Most members of Congress earn $174,000 annually, although some in leadership positions receive higher salaries. The Speaker of the House receives $223,500, while the Senate president pro tempore receives $193,400.
With the provision blocking pay raises stripped, lawmakers will receive an annual adjustment in pay equal to the change in the government’s Employment Cost Index for the fourth quarter of the prior calendar year versus the year before that.
That adjustment will be made each year unless Congress again blocks its pay raise.
The House is expected to vote on the CR no later than Friday. It must then pass the Senate before going to President Joe Biden’s desk.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) took the lead on negotiating the bill for Republicans, but the deal’s timing, contents, process, and more has received harsh pushback from GOP members across the ideological spectrum before the pay raise was revealed.
Whether the pay raise will hurt support for Johnson’s deal or help him remains to be seen.
Congress enjoys an approval rating consistently in the teens, according to Gallup.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
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