Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (ME-02) sent a letter Wednesday requesting that congressional appropriations leaders not include a pay raise for members of Congress in fiscal year 2024 (FY24).
Golden’s letter comes as the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are negotiating finalization of the FY24 Legislative Branch appropriations bill, and whether or not to include language blocking a member cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).
The COLA provision would give most Capitol Hill lawmakers a 4.6 percent raise, or an $8,000 increase, on top of their standard $174,000 congressional salary, which has remained the same since 2009.
“As you know, our nation is confronting a series of challenges: working families and our small businesses are continuing to struggle to make ends meet from inflation, our immigration system is broken, and our global adversaries are aggressively seeking to expand their influence in Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific,” Rep. Golden wrote to the congressional appropriations leaders.
“Despite these realities, most members of Congress currently receive an annual salary of $174,000 a year, more than approximately 90 percent of American households,” Golden wrote.
Golden explains his opposition to the pay raise by citing “continued congressional inaction to address nation’s most pressing challenges.”
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“Representing your community in Congress is about public service, not about how big your paycheck is,” he wrote. “Until Congress can demonstrate to the American people that it can work in a bipartisan, bicameral way to move our country forward, we believe that including explicit language to prevent a pay raise for Members of Congress is the right thing to do.”
Golden was joined on his letter by nine of his congressional colleagues, a bipartisan group of three Republicans and six Democrats.
Among the congressional leaders who hold sway over the decision whether or not to include the pay adjustment is U.S. Senator from Maine Susan Collins (R), who serves as Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="26591 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=26591">9 Comments
it’s an election year!! let’s say all the right things to sucker the voters and then just do what you want. Only 1 person has ever turned his salary in and that was Trump. You will never see any of these politicians, federal and State give up their salaries, ever.
Two words…
TERM LIMITS
Congress gets cost of living increases, nice!
Considering the absense of a viable workload as well as the completely compromised moral integrity of them, why should they get a pay raise to do nothing but complicate and screw up everybody elsse’s life?
He is a progressive, that is all you need go know. Male sure he does not get a raise vote him out. I wonder how much his personal wealth has increased since he has been in office.Since every single one of them seems to defy the odds and become millionaires.
everyone post to his Facebook page!!!! I do all the time. nothing ever happens. He is a good little follower.
Hey, Golden! Tell me it’s an election year without telling me it’s an election year….
I’m sure he will refuse the raise when it “automatically” happens.
Pay raises ? I was thinking 50% pay CUTS for Maine politicians. This will help offset their pillaging of our economy to pay for ILLEGALS that THEY invited here. This little soy boy doesn’t represent me. He’s only in office because of “ranked choice cheating”.