6 Lawmakers Calculate Pay Hike Is Illegal

A half-dozen GOP members of Congress asked a federal judge on Thursday to rescind a $12,000 salary increase, saying Democratic House leaders may have miscalculated themselves out of a pay raise.

This latest effort to undo the controversial pay raise centers on the 30-day deadline that Congress had in order to disapprove the presidential recommendation that increased Senate and House pay to $89,500 a year.

President Reagan sent his recommendations to Congress on Jan. 5. The Senate rejected the pay raise on Jan. 29. On Feb. 3, the day that pay raise supporters identified as the 30th day of the deadline, House Democrats adjourned the chamber without allowing a vote on the pay raise, thus allowing it to take effect automatically.

Safely in Pocket

The following day, Feb. 4, with the pay raise safely in pocket, the House voted to disapprove the salary boost, a vote that both sides agreed then was meaningless.

Opponents said Thursday, however, that they believe Congress did not receive Reagan’s recommendations until Jan. 6. The 99th Congress expired on Jan. 3, and the 100th Congress was not sworn in until Jan. 6. Although the White House papers were delivered to the House clerk’s office on Jan. 5, the clerk did not officially transmit them to the House until 4:10 p.m. on Jan. 6, William Strauss, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said.

Thus, when the House disapproved the pay raise on Feb. 4, it was within the 30-day deadline, the lawsuit argued.

“The clock started running when the message was transmitted to the Congress on Jan. 6,” Rep. Beau Boulter (R-Tex.) said.

Dornan Sees Slip-up

“It appears in the clever machinations to slip this by the American people, (House Democrats) may have undone themselves,” Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) said

Other plaintiffs include Republican Sen. Gordon J. Humphrey of New Hampshire; Reps. Robert C. Smith of New Hampshire, Jack Davis of Illinois and Clyde Holloway of Louisiana; consumer advocate Ralph Nader; and the National Taxpayers Union.

They amended a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court here in January challenging the constitutionality of the complicated pay raise system that lets the President make pay recommendations that automatically take effect unless expressly disapproved by both the House and Senate.