Leaders Weigh Tactics to Gain Increase in House Salaries Without Vote
House leaders are weighing a plan to raise lawmakers' salaries without a direct vote on the politically sensitive question when the House considers the spending bill covering congressional pay in the next two weeks, according to congressional officials familiar with the matter.</br></br>The leaders also would like to find a way to ease the House ban on all gifts to lawmakers and their aides, but have yet to settle on a plan, the officials said.</br></br>Lawmakers have not had a raise in their salaries -- which now stand at $133,600 for a rank-and-file member -- since 1993 and have voted annually to cancel the cost-of-living adjustment to which they are entitled under the law. Congressional leaders have higher salaries, with House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) getting $171,500.</br></br>The House version of the bill funding the Treasury Department and general government operations is headed to the House floor without any provision exempting lawmakers from the automatic 2.8 percent inflation adjustment that is to go to federal employees in the spending year beginning Oct. 1. Under a plan receiving serious consideration, House leaders would use a routine parliamentary procedure to block -- without a vote -- any attempt to add an exemption for lawmakers, the officials said.</br></br>That would avoid lawmakers having to go on record as making a politically difficult vote on the question, although they still would have to vote to pass the overall bill.