House members vote to freeze their own salaries

House members voted on Friday to pass the Legislative Branch budget for fiscal year 2013, which includes their own salaries as well as those of their staff. Though funding across the House of Representatives has been reduced by 10.5 percent since Republicans took control of the chamber in 2011, according to House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., salaries and members’ representational allowances will remain unchanged in 2013 if the Senate approves the bill.

The total for operations and maintenance of the House in fiscal year 2012—and now proposed for 2013--is $1.2 billion.

The bill decreases the salaries of leadership offices by $5.8 million, but the loss is only a retraction from last year’s amount, which was inflated to cover a gap when the leadership offices began receiving funds at the start of every calendar year rather than at the start of the fiscal year, according to a Democratic leadership aide. The current bill would appropriate money to leadership offices every calendar year.

The final vote was 307-102.