House Allows 3.4% Pay Raise for Congress as Spending Bill OKd

In an unusual burst of bipartisan cooperation, the House voted in effect Thursday to give Congress a 3.4% pay increase--amounting to $4,648 more a year for most representatives and senators, starting in January.

The 276-147 vote came on a procedural question that leaders of both parties portrayed as a vote on the pay hike. Under current law, lawmakers receive a cost-of-living increase every year unless they specifically vote to block it, as they have every year since 1993.

This year, however, Republican and Democratic leaders decided to allow the pay increase to go through but encouraged lawmakers who opposed it to register their protest by voting no on the procedural matter. Leaders of the two parties also vowed not to use the vote as a campaign issue in 2000.

Most lawmakers now earn $136,700 a year; their new pay would be $141,348. Congressional leaders make more, up to $175,400.

Although inflation is running at 2% a year, lawmakers took the opportunity to make up for the six years they didn’t take the raise.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) both defended the proposed increase, saying all federal employees are getting a cost-of-living raise and lawmakers should be no exception.

The House vote on the procedural question sparked no debate. In all, 142 Republicans and 134 Democrats supported the pay hike, while 78 Republicans, 68 Democrats and Rep. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, the House’s sole independent, opposed it.

Members of the California delegation who voted against the raise were Reps. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), Wally Herger (R-Marysville), Doug Ose (R-Sacramento), James E. Rogan (R-Glendale), Edward R. Royce (R-Fullerton), Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara), Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) and Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks).

Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-San Bernardino) did not vote.

The pay raise proposal is part of an overall $27.8-billion appropriation bill that the House passed Thursday night on a vote of 210-209. The appropriation bill provides operating money for the Treasury Department, Postal Service and other federal departments. The Senate previously approved its version of the bill.

The measure also would double the president’s salary--to $400,000 a year from $200,000--starting Jan. 20, 2001, when the next chief executive takes the oath of office.

Proponents note that the president’s salary is well below that of many corporate executives.