Congress Votes Pay Hikes for Lawmakers, President

Congress voted final approval Thursday to legislation doubling the next president’s salary to $400,000 and letting lawmakers themselves receive pay boosts of $4,600 or more.

Also getting pay raises in January would be Vice President Al Gore, Cabinet secretaries and about 1,300 other top-level executive branch officials. By law, they get the same cost-of-living increases that members of Congress do.

The raises--plus a 4.8% increase in federal civil servants’ salaries--were part of a $28-billion measure financing the Treasury Department and some smaller agencies for the coming fiscal year. The Senate approved it, 54 to 38, a day after the House gave its endorsement by a vote of 292 to 126.

President Clinton is expected to sign the measure.

Spending bills generally pass the Senate by wider margins. Senators from both sides attributed Thursday’s 38 no votes largely to anxiety over increasing lawmakers’ own pay.

“I did not want to vote for a congressional pay raise,” said Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), who faces reelection next year.

The 3.4% boost, rounded to the nearest $100, would raise most members’ pay to $141,300 beginning in January.

Leaders earn more, topped by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who will make $181,400. Gore will also earn $181,400, while Cabinet secretaries will make $157,000.

By law, federal judges would also be entitled to the same 3.4% increase, but Congress must approve that separately.

Lawmakers last gave themselves increases in 1998, and this year the combination of a sturdy economy and a balanced federal budget led many lawmakers to conclude that the political climate for a pay raise was safe.