Congress Sneaks Massive Pay Raise for Itself Into Spending Bill

Members of Congress are slated to receive a pay raise for the first time in 15 years if the massive spending bill released by House leaders Tuesday evening passes both chambers and is signed into law.

The 1,574 page bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), contains language allowing for a cost of living adjustment (COLA), which would give members of Congress a pay raise for the first time since 2009. This pay increase for Congress comes as many lawmakers’ constituents are struggling to make ends meet as inflation has skyrocketed under President Joe Biden’s administration.

Lawmakers currently earn a base salary of $174,000 annually with members in leadership receiving a higher salary. If Biden signs the CR into law, members of Congress are set to receive a maximum salary increase of $6,600 due to a 2025 COLA of 3.8%, according to a press release from Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden on Wednesday. The Maine Democrat is notably opposing the CR over the pay raise language in the bill.

“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,” Golden wrote in the press release.

“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.”

“Until the pay freeze is reinstated, I will not vote for this CR,” Golden added.

The CR’s pay raise for members of Congress is just an adjustment to lawmakers’ base salary for year 2025 and does not take into account every adjustment prescribed since 2009, according to analysis from the Congressional Research Service (CRS). If lawmakers had not routinely blocked language prohibiting their salaries from increasing with COLAs in annual spending bills, their 2024 base salary would be $243,000, according to CRS.

“If Members of Congress had received every adjustment prescribed by the ECI formula since 1992, and the statutory limitation (2 U.S.C. §4501) regarding the percentage base pay increase for GS employees remained unchanged, the 2024 salary would be $243,300,” CRS wrote in an article on lawmakers’ salaries that was updated in September.

In addition to Golden, Republican lawmakers have also pledged to vote against the CR, citing the pay raise provision.

“So Congress is failing the American people AGAIN and giving themselves a raise in the process?,” Republican Arizona Rep. Eli Crane wrote in a post on X Wednesday. “Can’t make this stuff up. I will be voting NO.”

So Congress is failing the American people AGAIN and giving themselves a raise in the process?

Can’t make this stuff up.

I will be voting NO. https://t.co/qKB5SQyTPk

— Rep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) December 18, 2024

“Seems hypocritical to increase salaries for ‘sausage making,’” Republican Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “I understand if we would be governing.”

Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, who is leading the fight among conservative House Republicans to tank the CR, also acknowledged the irony of lawmakers receiving a pay raise when many Americans disapprove of Congress for failing to pass a balanced budget, cut spending or secure the border.

“It is difficult to go to the American people and explain why we’ve earned the right to even have that conversation [pay raise increases] when we’re failing,” Roy told reporters on Wednesday. “I think the American people might be like, all right, maybe pay raises make some sense, if you stop the day trading, if you do your job. How about you [Congress] pass a balanced budget? How about you stop spending more money we don’t have? How about you secure the border in the United States? And then, how about you not be day trading?”

“And then talk to me about pay,” Roy added.

“Proposed 28th amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting the citizens of the United States that does not also apply to members of Congress themselves,” DeSantis wrote on X on Wednesday.

The CR also includes language that would allow lawmakers to opt-out of Obamacare.

Some advocates of giving lawmakers a pay raise cite the high cost of living in Washington, D.C., and the need to adjust lawmakers’ salaries due to the rise in inflation. Several spending bills passed by Congress in recent years, including the American Rescue Plan and the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, notably contributed to inflation, according to many economists and policy experts.

“It’s good news,” Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin told CNN Wednesday during an interview in response to a question on whether he supported giving Congress a pay raise. “I think it’s about time something’s done.”

Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, told the network that he was unaware about the pay raise provision in the CR.

Rising rents and inflation have been a burden for Americans since Biden took office in 2021. Inflation under Biden has increased over 20%, with a sizeable share of that increase being attributed to cost of living expenses including shelter and food.

The CR will temporarily extend current government funding levels through March 14, 2025, by approving hundreds of billions in spending to avert a government shutdown set to occur Friday night.

Conservative lawmakers immediately slammed House GOP leadership for allowing “reckless and unpaid spending” and an array of unrelated policy riders into the spending bill, dubbing the CR the “Christmas Cramnibus.” Lawmakers will likely have 72 hours or less to review the massive spending bill before voting on the package.