Congress Wants to Give Themselves a Raise, Better Health Care
Congress is once again locked in a battle to prevent the government from entering a partial shutdown over a lack of funding — and some lawmakers are trying to sneak in a last minute Christmas bonus.
For more than a decade, funding bills passed by Congress have included language preventing members of Congress, whose current annual base salary is $174,000, from receiving yearly cost of living adjustment (COLA) wage increases. That language has been conspicuously stricken from the proposed continuing resolution (CR) currently before Congress.
The last minute omission has become a sticking point ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline to keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown.
On Wednesday, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) told Politico that a pay raise was the last thing lawmakers should be thinking about right now. “Members of Congress earn more than 90 percent of Americans. If any of my colleagues can’t afford to live on that income, they should find another line of work,” he said. “Mainers can’t wave a wand and give themselves a raise, and Congress shouldn’t either — especially when most voters would tell you our job performance is poor at best. Until the pay freeze is reinstated, I will not vote for this CR.”
Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) made similar comments on X, formerly Twitter. “So Congress is failing the American people AGAIN and giving themselves a raise in the process? Can’t make this stuff up. I will be voting NO,” he wrote.
Not all legislators are so opposed to the pay bump. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told CNN it’s high time members of Congress got a raise. “It’s good news — what has it been 10 years, 14 years? And no COLA, no change at all?” he said. “I think it’s about time.”
When CNN’s Manu Raju asked Durbin if he felt the pay bump was earned given voters dissatisfaction with Congress, the senator attempted to turn the question back on CNN. “What about the media? Think about that for a second,” he said. “Half of your listeners are not there anymore [and] you’re still getting the same paycheck. What’s going on? […] I think that men and women serving in Congress, House and Senate by and large are hardworking, principled people and deserving to be adequately compensated.”
The CR would also overturn provisions requiring congressional lawmakers to opt out of a requirement to procure their health care through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, in favor of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. It’s a change Republicans have been after since the ACA was first passed, and would only to elected lawmakers, not their staff.
Should Congress fail to pass a stopgap funding bill, major parts of the government could be forced into a partial shutdown until they do — during which time federal workers employed by the un-funded agencies would not receive paychecks. Merry Christmas America.
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