www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/07/16/presidential.salary -> www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/07/16/presidential.salary/
TIME 10 analysis 11 community 12 WEATHER 13 BUSINESS 14 SPORTS 15 TECHNOLOGY 16 NATURE 17 ENTERTAINMENT 18 BOOKS 19 TRAVEL 20 FOOD 21 HEALTH 22 STYLE 23 IN-DEPTH 24 custom news 25 Headline News brief 26 daily almanac 27 CNN networks 28 on-air transcripts 29 news quiz CNN WEB SITES: 30 CNN Websites TIME INC. EDT (0504 GMT) By ALAN FRAM Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to give members of Congress a $4,600 pay raise in January and to double the next president's salary to $400,000. Lawmakers voted 276-147 to increase their own pay, rolling up nearly 2-1 margins among Republicans and Democrats alike. They then voted 334-82 to reject an effort by conservatives trying to prevent the presidential pay boost. The vote on legislators' salaries underlined the favorable political climate for the first raise since January 1998 and the second since 1993. In this story: 48 Treasury bill just passes 49 Roll-call vote 50 RELATED STORIES, SITES icon Not only do polls show Congress rated favorably by more than half the public, but its members serve during economic plenty and growing budget surpluses. While in past years the congressional pay question has often provoked heated battles, Thursday the issue came and went with scarcely a mention and as an obscure parliamentary vote. Jim Kolbe, R-Arizona, saying he hoped lawmakers would support a procedural motion -- on a Treasury Department spending bill -- that in effect allowed the congressional pay raise. COLA is shorthand for cost-of-living adjustment, the official name for the raise. Treasury bill squeaks by The $28 billion Treasury bill squeaked to passage by 210-209. Most Democrats opposed it because of spending cuts in the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies. GOP opposition was largely due to language requiring most federal employees' health plans to cover prescription contraceptives. Even so, the potential volatility of the issue was reflected by the votes of the House's most vulnerable blocks of members. The 42 freshmen voted 26-15 against the raise, and one did not vote. And the 44 lawmakers elected by margins of 10 percent or less last November voted "no" by 30-13, and one didn't vote. Roll-call vote Under a 1989 law, lawmakers get an annual raise automatically unless they vote to deny it, a mechanism that has at times let them avoid taking politically risky votes. To avoid a replay of past accusations that lawmakers gave themselves a raise in the dark of night, Hastert and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Missouri, agreed to the roll-call vote. Both men voted for the boost, and party leaders had met repeatedly to make sure there would be broad bipartisan support. The Treasury bill is the traditional vehicle for blocking the increase. Before lawmakers voted on the debate rules for the measure, the leaders told their rank and file that approving those rules meant that a later amendment to block the pay increase would not be allowed. The Senate approved the Treasury measure on July 1 without language preventing the increase, and with no mention of it during debate. It is all but certain that the compromise version of the bill will be silent on the issue, which means the increase will take effect. Federal courts have ruled that increases under the 1989 law do not violate the 27th constitutional amendment, which requires congressional pay raises to take effect after the next election, because they are triggered by a law enacted several elections ago. The Treasury bill contained language doubling the current $200,000 presidential salary when Clinton's successor takes office in 2001. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and Mark Sanford, R-South Carolina, tried to kill that increase, arguing that presidents are already paid enough and that their perks, like free, sumptuous housing and travel are worth millions. Supporters of an increase said presidential pay has been the same since it was doubled in 1969. And they said if George Washington's $25,000 annual salary was adjusted for inflation, it would now be $4 million. Defenders of congressional pay raises argue that many lawmakers must maintain homes in Washington and their districts. They say the pay must continually grow to keep highly qualified people interested in becoming lawmakers and aides. Critics say there is no need to boost congressional salaries that already far exceed what most people back home earn. According to the liberal Congressional Accountability Project, congressional salaries began at $6 per day in session in 1789. They hit $10,000 annually in 1925, shrank to $8,500 during the Depression, and reached $30,000 in 1965. For continuous breaking news, see 51 AP Newstream 52 Associated Press news material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. VOTEWATCH How did your Congressmen vote on the issues important to you? Find out with Congressional Quarterly's " 53 Votewatch", a database of key House and Senate votes. RATE YOUR REP How do your views compare with your representative in Congress? Find out with Congressional Quarterly's interactive feature, 54 Rate Your Rep.
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