HUFFINGTON
08.05.12
CAPITOL HILL
BILL CLARK/CQ ROLL CALL
adjustments (members have voted
not to accept increases for the
past three years); nine bills would
connect congressional pay to outside economic indicators; and four
bills would just cut the pay.
“THE LAST TIME Members of Congress took a pay cut was on April
1, 1933—in the midst of the Great
Depression,” wrote a group of lawmakers last fall to the co-chairs of
the so-called “super committee,”
who were seeking a grand bargain
on deficit reduction. “At a time of
similar economic turmoil and record deficits, Congress should not
require sacrifices of others without
tightening its own belt.”
The same group of lawmakers
noted that legislators in other developed nations are paid 2.3 times
more than their constituents, while
American legislators earn 3.4 times
more. (Only Japanese lawmakers
are paid better relative to the people they represent than American
lawmakers.) A 10 percent pay cut
would deliver $100 million worth
of savings over 10 years, the American lawmakers noted in their letter
to the super committee.
Still, some lawmakers cry poverty. Freshman Republican Rep.
Scott Rigell (Va.) said he doesn’t
support slashing salaries because some members really need
the money (though he told the
Huffington Post that he himself
Rep.
Shelly
Berkley
(D-Nev.),
listens on
before the
Senate
votes on the
Paycheck
Fairness Act
in June.