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This holiday season, members of Congress did not find something specific in their stockings - a pay bump. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill were on the brink of getting a higher paycheck for the first time in 15 years, but that plan quickly crashed and burned. Supporters of raising salaries say this makes it even harder to run for office unless you're already wealthy. NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt has more.
BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: A pre-Christmas bill to keep the government funded through the spring had a line in it that would have enabled congressional lawmakers to get a small pay increase. Top adviser to President-elect Trump, Elon Musk, who has a net worth of over $400 billion, claimed Congress members were trying to give themselves a 40% pay bump. Here's Nebraska Republican Don Bacon reacting at the time.
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DON BACON: I was surprised to hear I was going to get - my pay was going up to 240,000. That was news to me.
SPRUNT: But in reality, the bill would have made members eligible for a cost-of-living increase of 3.8%. Congressional pay for rank-and-file members is $174,000. It hasn't been adjusted since 2009. Ritchie Torres, a Democratic Congressman from New York, said he doesn't think it's unreasonable for Congress to get equal treatment with the rest of the federal workforce, which does get cost-of-living increases.
RITCHIE TORRES: We cannot operate as if there's no inflation in the world. It turns out that members of Congress are subject to the impact of inflation as well. Who would have thought?
SPRUNT: A 1989 statute gives members an automatic yearly cost-of-living pay increase, but Congress has long blocked those from taking effect.
BRANDICE CANES-WRONE: They have had effectively a 40% pay cut.
SPRUNT: That's Brandice Canes-Wrone, a political science professor at Stanford. After adjusting for inflation, members' salary has decreased by nearly 40% compared to 1993 levels and 31% from 2009, the last time they got a cost-of-living adjustment.
CANES-WRONE: We now pay congressional members comparatively less than equivalent executive branch positions. Members of Congress are expected to maintain two residences or be sleeping on the floor in their office and have the residence back in their district.
SPRUNT: The Constitution directs Congress to determine its pay, but Canes-Wrone says even giving pay bumps to adjust for inflation has become a bit of a political third rail, with members worried about blowback for giving themselves a raise.
CANES-WRONE: It allows your challenger or an outside actor to say, oh, members are just enriching themselves.
SPRUNT: But Reid Ribble, who served in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2016, puts it this way.
REID RIBBLE: What would you personally think of your boss if you worked for 10 years or 12 years but you never once got a raise in pay?
SPRUNT: The Wisconsin Republican says stagnant salaries have real consequences for the makeup of Congress itself.
RIBBLE: I think we have a real disincentive for people to run for Congress unless you're a fairly affluent person. People think that $174,000 is a lot of money, and if you're making 50 or 60,000, it appears that way. But having that separate place to live in a very expensive city, you burn through that money pretty quickly.
SPRUNT: A recent change allows members to claim reimbursement for some lodging costs, aimed at helping those struggling to maintain two residences. But Ribble says it doesn't address the lagging salary when it comes to the rate of inflation.
RIBBLE: You want Congress to look like the American people. So you need people from every race and religion, every income strata. And the more expensive it is to live in D.C., the less likely that you're going to be able to have people to do that.
SPRUNT: Ultimately, Congress funded the government with different legislation, and when the initial bill collapsed, so did any foreseeable plans to increase lawmakers' pay. Barbara Sprunt, NPR News, the Capitol. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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