By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
January 9, 2008
WASHINGTON - Fortunately for members of Congress, their pay
isn't tied to their approval ratings. Lawmakers in 2008 will
receive salaries of $169,300, a boost of $4,100 over the pay
they have lived with since January 2006.
That 2.5 percent increase is mirrored by similar raises for
associate justices of the Supreme Court, who will see their
pay go from $203,000 to $208,100, and Chief Justice John Roberts,
whose pay will rise to $217,400 from $212,100.
The salary figures were published in Tuesday's edition of
the Federal Register.
Last year was the first since 1999, when the pay was $136,700,
that members of Congress did not receive a cost-of-living allowance
raise along with other federal employees. Democrats, newly
elected to the majority, had vowed to block an increase in
their paychecks until Congress raised the minimum wage.
With the minimum wage increase accomplished last year, House
Democratic leaders joined with their Republican counterparts
to oppose a procedural vote to bring the COLA issue to the
floor, leaving the way clear for their automatic raise.
The congressional COLA is linked, under a complicated formula,
to the cost-of-living increase awarded civil servants. As part
of a 1989 ethics bill, Congress gave up its ability to accept
pay for speeches and made annual cost-of-living pay increases
automatic unless lawmakers voted otherwise.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, a leading critic of the COLA process,
said in an interview that he's not proposing that members of
Congress never get a pay raise. But he said that, in a time
of budget deficits when many people are undergoing economic
hardships, "at least we ought to have an up-and-down vote
on it. The whole process appears so secretive."
Reluctance to openly discuss the salary issue comes at a time
when Congress has been suffering low public approval ratings.
In a December AP-Ipsos poll, 25 percent of those surveyed approved
of the job Congress was doing.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will get a pay boost
from $212,100 last year to $217,400, the same as Chief Justice
Roberts. The majority and minority leaders of the House and
Senate and Senate president pro tempore Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.,
will get increases from $183,500 to $188,100.
Dick Cheney, in his last year as vice president, will receive
$221,100, up from $215,700. President Bush's salary of $400,000
is unchanged.
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