WASHINGTON – Wary of angering constituents during the recession, members of Congress will turn down the automatic pay raise due next year.
The salary freeze for 2010 was in the spending bill the House passed yesterday.
House and Senate members now get $174,000 a year. Leaders get somewhat more; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) receives $223,500.
The move does not affect the $4,700 cost-of-living adjustment members received as of Jan. 1 this year.
President Obama, in his first full day in office on Jan. 21, also froze salaries for White House employees earning more than $100,000 a year.
There was little debate on the issue in the House. The freeze was inserted in the resolution establishing the rules of debate for the spending bill.
Republicans, who generally opposed the spending bill, voted overwhelmingly for the resolution, which passed 398-24.
“I appreciate the fact that we are going to eliminate the pay raise. We should not be getting a raise in a time like this,” said Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas).
“We did the right thing today,” said Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah), a leading critic of the lack of openness involving the cost-of-living pay process.
Pay increases usually are written into bills so that they occur automatically without open debate.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) indicated several weeks ago that lawmakers should not expect anything extra in their paycheck next year.
He said it would be inappropriate for Congress to take its annual cost of living increase in 2010 while unemployment is soaring and the economy is in decline.