Senate, in Dark of Night, Clears Path for Pay Hike

Members of Congress are on their way to a $4,900 pay raise in January as the Senate used a midnight vote Friday to thwart lawmakers who tried to block it.

After a five-minute debate, the Senate used a 65-33 procedural vote to defeat an effort by Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) to stop the increase from taking effect. Under a 1989 law, legislators get an annual cost-of-living raise unless the House and Senate vote to block it, a mechanism that often lets the increases take effect with little notice.

The latest boost is 3.4%, raising members’ salaries to $150,000.

Feingold questioned the timing of a congressional pay boost when “our economy is in a recession and hundreds of thousands of workers have been laid off.” He also noted that the string of four consecutive budget surpluses is now expected to end.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and both California Democrats, Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, voted not to block the increase.

The House already has passed legislation opening the door for the pay increase.

The January increase will be the third congressional pay raise in the last four years. Before this period, lawmakers increased their salaries less frequently, but the political risk faded as the economy boomed and surpluses soared in the late 1990s.

Feingold was blocked from trying to stop the pay raise earlier this year. The vote Friday came as the Senate debated a defense spending bill.