Senator Russ Feingold: Blocking the Back-Door Pay Raise [View All]

[kpete]

Blocking the Back-Door Pay Raise
by Senator Russ Feingold
Tue Jun 27, 2006

Something I didn't get a chance to mention on Meet the Press on Sunday is the back door pay raise for members of Congress. It may not be the biggest issue facing us as a nation, but it's something that's always bugged me, and it may come up in the Senate soon. This issue is symbolic to me of how out of touch and insulated some elected officials in Washington are from the problems that regular Americans face.

Senator Russ Feingold's diary :: ::
As a lot of you know, Congress has a pay raise system set up that anyone would love to have. Unless they vote to stop their own pay raise, members of Congress get it automatically, without lifting a finger. Next January, unless it is stopped, every member of Congress is scheduled to get a $3,300 pay raise.

This system is just plain wrong, and I've proposed legislation to put an end to it. I've also tried to at least put the Senate on record, forcing a roll call vote on the pay raise. In several years during the 1990s, Congress actually voted to forego the automatic pay raise, but more recently, there haven't been enough votes to block it. Last year, we actually succeeded in blocking the pay raise in the Senate, only to lose when congressional leadership stripped the provision from the final version of an appropriations bill

For myself, I only take a raise when I get reelected, because that's as close as I can get to my boss - the people of Wisconsin - telling me I'm doing a good job. It is also consistent with the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which says: "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the senators and representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened."

more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/6/27/123756/102