[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 7 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S382-S383]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FEINGOLD:
  S. 110. A bill to repeal the provision of law that provides automatic 
pay adjustments for Members of Congress; to the Committee on 
Governmental Affairs.


            eliminating the automatic pay raise for congress

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I am pleased to re-introduce legislation 
that would put an end to automatic cost-of-living adjustments for 
Congressional pay.
  As my Colleagues are aware, it is an unusual thing to have the power 
to raise our own pay. Few people have that ability. Most of our 
constituents do not have that power. And that this power is so unusual 
is good reason for the Congress to exercise that power openly, and to 
exercise it subject to regular procedures that include debate, 
amendment, and a vote on the Record.
  Last year, the Senate initially voted down the conference report on 
the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. As I noted during the 
debate on that bill, by considering the Treasury-Postal appropriations 
bill as part of that conference report, shielded as it was from 
amendment, the Senate blocked any opportunity to force an open debate 
of a $3,800 pay raise for every Member of the Senate and the House of 
Representatives. This process of pay raises without accountability must 
end.
  The stealth pay raise technique began with a change Congress enacted 
in the Ethics Reform Act of 1989. In section 704 of that Act, Members 
of Congress voted to make themselves entitled to an annual raise equal 
to half a percentage point less than the employment cost index, one 
measure of inflation. Many times, Congress has voted to deny itself the 
raise, and Congress traditionally does that on the Treasury-Postal 
Appropriations bill.
  And by bringing the Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill to the Senate 
floor for the first time last year in a conference report, without 
Senate floor consideration, the majority leadership prevented anyone 
from offering an amendment on that bill to block the pay raise. The 
majority leadership tried to make it impossible even to put Senators on 
record in an up-or-down vote directly for or against the pay raise, 
nearly perfecting the technique of the stealth pay raise.
  The question of how and whether Members of Congress can raise their 
own pay was one that our Founders considered from the beginning of our 
Nation. In August of 1789, as part of the package of 12 amendments 
advocated by James Madison that included what has become our Bill of 
Rights, the House of Representatives passed an amendment to the 
Constitution providing that Congress could not raise its pay without an 
intervening election. Almost exactly 211 years ago, on September 9, 
1789, the Senate passed that amendment. In late September of 1789, 
Congress submitted the amendments to the states.
  Although the amendment on pay raises languished for two centuries, in 
the 1980s, a campaign began to ratify it. While I was a member of the 
Wisconsin state Senate, I was proud to help ratify the amendment. Its 
approval by the Michigan legislature on May 7, 1992, gave it the needed 
approval by three-fourths of the states.
  The 27th Amendment to the Constitution now states: ``No law, varying 
the compensation for the services of the senators and representatives, 
shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have 
intervened.''
  I try to honor that limitation in my own practices. In my own case, 
throughout my 6-year term, I accept only the rate of pay that Senators 
receive on the date on which I was sworn in as a Senator. And I return 
to the Treasury any additional income Senators get, whether from a 
cost-of-living adjustment or a pay raise we vote for ourselves. I don't 
take a raise until my bosses, the people of Wisconsin, give me one at 
the ballot box. That is the spirit of the 27th Amendment. The stealth 
pay raises like the one that Congress allowed last year, at a minimum, 
certainly violate the spirit of that amendment.

[[Page S383]]

  Mr. President, this practice must end. To address it, I am re-
introducing this bill to end the automatic cost-of-living adjustment 
for Congressional pay. Senators and Congressmen should have to vote up-
or-down to raise Congressional pay. My bill would simply require us to 
vote in the open. We owe our constituents no less.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be printed in 
the Record immediately following my remarks.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                 S. 110

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. ELIMINATION OF AUTOMATIC PAY ADJUSTMENTS FOR 
                   MEMBERS OF CONGRESS.

       (a) In General.--Paragraph (2) of section 601(a) of the 
     Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 31) is 
     repealed.
       (b) Technical and Conforming Amendments.--Section 601(a)(1) 
     of such Act is amended--
       (1) by striking ``(a)(1)'' and inserting ``(a)'';
       (2) by redesignating subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) as 
     paragraphs (1), (2), and (3), respectively; and
       (3) by striking ``as adjusted by paragraph (2) of this 
     subsection'' and inserting ``adjusted as provided by law''.
       (c) Effective Date.--This section shall take effect on 
     February 1, 2003.
                                 ______