House Democratic leaders have stuck a pin in bipartisan plans to give lawmakers a raise, Politico reported.
During a private meeting on Monday evening, Democrats decided to nix a section of the funding bill that Congress is set to vote on this week that included a raise for members of Congress and staff. It would’ve been the first time lawmakers had gotten a raise in a decade, according to Politico.
The decision was made after key Democratic members in vulnerable red states complained that the plan — while it enjoyed bipartisan support — would be detrimental to their reelection prospects, especially for freshmen Democrats in swing districts.
Red district Democrats like Reps. Joe Cunningham (D-SC), Ben McAdams (D-UT) and Anthony Brindisi (D-NY) publicly urged Democratic leadership to pull the raise provision in the bill. Some even wrote amendments to cut it out of the spending plan. In all, at least 15 Democrats pushed to cut the raise from the spending bill.
Hoyer confirmed to Politico after the meeting that he believes the section — which would’ve given lawmakers a $4,500 raise — will be cut from the bill. A bipartisan group of lawmakers reportedly supported the measure in order to encourage average and middle class Americans to run for office.
Most members of Congress currently make $174,000 a year. The House speaker makes $223,500 and the majority and minority leaders in each branch, plus the president pro tempore each earn $193,400 a year.
So, a fair headline might be: “House Democrats nix Senate GOP plan to raise their own salaries.”
Yeah. Given that’s far greater than average salary, I’m thinking that middle-class Americans aren’t nixing thoughts of a congressional run because it doesn’t pay enough.
Now, if they want to pass a bill that gets rid of all the brown nosing and posturing that needs to be done to get elected or the way you need to sell yourself to corporate interests to get contributions, that might help.
The staff seriously need a raise, especially the unpaid interns.
In D.C. that’s borderline poverty. Really.
I guess the Rethugliklans won’t be getting their merit pay. Sad.