The Senate decided Thursday that congressional pay should remain frozen for a fifth straight year despite an impassioned argument from one senior member that the chamber was bringing about a decline in the quality of legislators. The Senate's decision, if upheld by the House, would mean the highest ranking members of the Senior Executive Service would also get no pay raise this year. SES pay is tied to congressional pay.
By voice vote, the Senate accepted an amendment to the FY98 Treasury-Postal appropriations bill stating that members of Congress will receive no cost-of-living raise to their $133,600 salaries.
Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., a sponsor of the amendment, said it would be "inappropriate" for members to receive cost-of-living increases at a time of tight budget restraints and cuts in many programs. But Appropriations Chairman Stevens, a 29-year veteran of the chamber, said "we are destroying the system" by denying members a needed raise.
"We will witness the decline in the value of the Congress to the American society if we don't have the guts to stand up to the demagogues and tell them the pay for the Congress ought to be sufficient to attract the most capable people in our society," Stevens said.
Wellstone disagreed: "Don't tell me that the reason people don't run for office, that young people aren't interested in public life, is because they now are finding out they are only going to make $133,000 a year. I think that's ridiculous."
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