Reagan Backs 50% Raise for U.S. Officials

President Reagan, accepting the recommendations of a high-level presidential commission, has approved a 50% pay increase for top federal officials, judges and members of Congress, the White House announced Thursday night.

The pay recommendation, which would cost the taxpayers an estimated $300 million a year, will be included in the final federal budget that Reagan will send to Congress on Monday for fiscal 1990. The proposed salary levels would go into effect automatically unless they are voted down by both houses of Congress within 30 days.

Under the scales approved by the President, U.S. District Court judges, members of Congress and federal officials at the level of deputy secretary would be paid $135,000 a year. Cabinet members would receive annual salaries of $149,250; the vice president, $172,500, and the President, $300,000, up from the current yearly presidential pay of $200,000.

The announcement stunned opponents of the increase, who had expected Reagan to scale back the commission’s recommendation as he did a year ago.

“Oh my God, unbelievable,” said David L. Keating, head of the National Taxpayers Union, which strongly opposes any pay increase at a time when the government is operating with a mammoth budget deficit. “This is horrible.”

End to Honorariums Urged

Reagan also is recommending that members of Congress renounce speaking honorariums from special interest groups. Such payments have become a highly lucrative and controversial source of income for the lawmakers in recent years. House members can accept honorariums equivalent to 30% of their income and Senate members 40%.

White House spokesman Leslye Arsht said Reagan would send each member of Congress a letter today to explain his decision and urge members to support it. In addition, Reagan is expected to speak on behalf of the pay raise in his weekly radio address Saturday.

Such a direct, visible effort by the President is expected to help wavering members of Congress, fearful of voters’ retribution, to justify support for the pay increase. A congressional source said the Democratic leadership has sought a strong endorsement of the pay raise from Reagan because of his image among voters as “the most conservative, anti-government President in this century.”

Quadrennial Commission

The raise originally was recommended to Reagan on Dec. 14 by the bipartisan Commission on Executive, Legislative and Judicial Salaries, known as the Quadrennial Commission.

The Senate is expected to vote against the pay hike before the 30-day deadline, but sources said House leaders have arranged to delay any vote in that chamber until after the deadline is passed--just as they did last year. A vote to abolish honorariums is expected in the House on Feb. 10, one day after the deadline.

Although a majority of members in Congress appear to favor the pay increase, especially when linked to the abolition of honorariums, some vocal opponents are determined to scuttle it. Rep. Tom Tauke (R-Iowa) already has introduced legislation that would delay the raise for members of Congress until after another election.

Opponents of the raise expect Republican Sens. Gordon J. Humphrey of New Hampshire and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa to lead opposition to the increase in the Senate, while Tauke and Reps. Mike Synar (D-Okla.), Philip M. Crane (R-Ill.) and Robert C. Smith (R-N.H.) will handle the issue in the House.

‘We Can Still Beat It’

Even with Reagan’s support, Keating said he thinks that “we can still beat it.”

“I don’t think Reagan’s personal popularity helps the pay raise at all,” he said. “A 50% pay raise is a little bit more popular than selling arms to the ayatollah, but not much.”

Arsht and other White House officials, apparently preparing for possible criticism of the proposal, stressed that sizable pay hikes are required for the federal government, Congress and the judiciary to compete successfully with private business in attracting highly qualified personnel.

“Since 1969, salary levels for senior federal officials, executives, legislatures, and judges have declined 35% in constant dollars, while the compensation of workers in the private sector has kept pace with inflation,” Arsht said, in making public the White House argument for the pay increase.

“In fact,” she said, “the salary paid to federal judges in 1969, if increased solely to match the inflation that has occurred since then, would amount to $140,340, more than the commission recommended. Federal trial judges are currently earning less than some junior lawyers in private practice and are leaving the bench in record numbers.”

Economic analyses of the commission’s recommendation were brought to Reagan a week ago while the President was spending a two-week Christmas and New Year’s vacation in Southern California. Officials said he made a final decision on accepting the recommendations of the panel, which was headed by Washington lawyer Lloyd Cutler, upon his return to Washington on Thursday.

A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that such senior Washington figures as Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Cutler, who served as former President Jimmy Carter’s White House counsel, “have talked to the President” to make a pitch for the pay raise and that the need to boost the pay of federal judges “was a major factor” in Reagan’s decision. Cutler actually had several sessions with Reagan, the official said.

“From his standpoint,” he said, recounting Reagan’s view of the issue, “it wasn’t really a pay raise, as much as trying to catch up to where they should be.”

He said that there was little internal debate about the decision within the Administration; rather, there was considerable effort to present independent analysis of the commission’s recommendation. He said this was provided by the Office of Management and Budget.

Staff writer Sara Fritz contributed to this story.