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Lawmakers froze their own pay in April

December 9th, 2010 | Congress | Posted by Stephen Losey

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One sentiment keeps popping up in many of the e-mails and comments from readers on the two-year federal pay freeze: What about the House and Senate lawmakers themselves? Shouldn’t those knuckleheads have their pay frozen too, if feds are forced to swallow such a bitter pill?

The answer is, their pay is already frozen. The House and Senate voted in April to deny their automatic $1,600 pay hike and keep their salaries at $174,000. Congress also froze its pay last year too.

Lawmakers’ annual pay freezes translate to $160,000 saved in the 100-member Senate, and $696,000 saved in the 435-member House.

Now, the situation for their staffers is another matter entirely, and is up to each member to decide. Lawmakers each get an allowance they use to pay their own staffs, and they decide on their own whether to hand out raises and to whom. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said earlier this week that most of his staffers aren’t getting a raise for the coming year.

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Comments

  1. sreynolds Says:
    December 9th, 2010 at 5:49 pm

    That’s great, but they are already earning four times what I earn as a federal worker and they work probably half of the hours I do with all of their recesses and campaign time. Plus, when they do work, they are inneffective at best, unprofessional, insubordinate, and downright unethical at worst. I say bump them down to a GS-7 level, make them punch a time clock and hold them accountable for results and then they can talk about my “cushy” job.

  2. Nope Says:
    December 9th, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    Yeah, but they increased their benefits and allowances so each Senator or Representative gets on average $3.3 million a year of money and benefits.

  3. Zshot Says:
    December 10th, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    The freeze should also include contracted employee’s.

    But that won’t happen, the contractors make too many campaign contributions to have that happen

  4. rnc1960 Says:
    December 10th, 2010 at 12:31 pm

    Thanks for providing the updated information. I do not have a problem with the pay freeze as long as it is across the board for all federal employee.