Pay raise in stopgap funding bill a sticking point for some members

Justin Papp, CQ-Roll Call on Dec 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON — Member pay could increase for the first time since 2009, according to the text of a stopgap funding measure released Tuesday night, prompting anger from lawmakers in purple districts.

For more than a decade, appropriators have inserted language into spending bills blocking a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for members of Congress and freezing their pay at $174,000 (though members of leadership make more). That language was not included in the bill released Tuesday.

“Congress should be working to raise Americans’ wages and lower their health care costs, not sneaking new member perks into must-pass legislation behind closed doors,” Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden said in a statement Wednesday. “If members can’t get by on our already generous salaries and benefits, they should find another line of work. As long as these provisions are in the CR, I will vote against it.”

The debate over a COLA has raged for years, with those in favor arguing that depressing member wages makes it more difficult for people who are not independently wealthy to run for Congress.

Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde, meanwhile, argued earlier this year that blocking a pay raise may be unconstitutional, forming an unlikely partnership with Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., the former House majority leader, who has long fought for a COLA.

But opposition remains, as members fear the optics of putting more money in their own pockets. And previous efforts have repeatedly fallen short. Earlier this year, bipartisan negotiations around the fiscal 2024 spending bill would have upped member pay, but ultimately hit a wall.

Golden is among a small group of members who have railed against the COLA, raising uncertainty about a spending package whose size has also angered many in the GOP.

He led a bipartisan letter to Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries earlier this year calling for the exclusion of any COLA in fiscal 2025 spending bills.

The letter was signed by Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, along with Democratic Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Josh Harder of California and Chris Pappas of New Hampshire. It notes that members of Congress draw a salary higher than roughly 90% of American households.

Some in the House voiced their anger over the COLA move but did not join Golden in pulling their support from the package containing the continuing resolution, at least as of early Wednesday afternoon.

“I have two words for you: not happy,” said Rep. Eric Sorensen of Illinois, who joined a separate letter, signed by Pappas and Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig, to Legislative Branch appropriators in June opposing a COLA. Sorensen said he had not decided how he would vote on the stopgap measure.

Gluesenkamp Perez issued a statement Wednesday urging House leaders to reconsider. “Any way you slice it, Congress giving itself a pay raise right now is bananas,” she wrote.

Craig, who on Tuesday won the top Democratic spot on the House Agriculture Committee for the next Congress, said she was frustrated but would not vote against the bill, which includes a one-year extension of the farm bill.

“I was shocked late last night to learn that Republicans had put that in,” Craig said of the pay bump. “But this bill also has $650 million in economic assistance to family farmers in it. It has year-round E15, which is really important to my corn growers back home. And it keeps the government open and our skies safe.”

“So I’m not going to vote against it … but this is one of the reasons Americans don’t trust us,” Craig added.

Golden also objected to a separate provision in the stopgap measure that would allow members of Congress to purchase health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, rather than through exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

According to Golden, the change would lower out-of-pocket costs for members at the expense of taxpayers.

The fate of the year-end package remained unclear on Wednesday afternoon, as Republican leaders heard complaints on its myriad provisions. Elon Musk launched a public campaign against it, posting repeatedly on X.

“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years,” wrote the world’s richest man, who spent millions boosting Trump and Republicans in the last election cycle.

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