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Presidential and Congressional Pay Raises
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From: Gary Ruskin <gary@essential.org>
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Subject: Presidential and Congressional Pay Raises
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Congressional Reform Briefings July 20, 1999
-- Please tell your Members of Congress to oppose the proposed
congressional and presidential pay raises.
On July 15, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Treasury and
General Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2000 (H.R. 2490), which
advanced both a $4,600 congressional pay raise and a $200,000
presidential pay raise. The proposed raises would boost the base
congressional salary to $141,300 per year, and would double the
presidential salary to $400,000 per year.
The Treasury and General Government Appropriations bills are expected
to go to conference committee soon. The Senate version of the bill (S.
1282) has no provision to increase the President's salary. Neither the
House nor the Senate version has a provision to strip out the automatic
congressional pay raise -- consequently, the congressional pay raise is
effectively "in" both House and Senate bills.
Please urge your Members of Congress to oppose the congressional and
presidential pay raises. Tell them that you want them to remove both
congressional and presidential pay raises from the Treasury, Postal and
General Government appropriations bill. The congressional switchboard
phone number is (202) 224-3121. E-mail addresses of Members of Congress
are available at:
<http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/congress/conemail.txt>.
Opponents of the proposed pay raises sent letters yesterday to House
Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt
(D-MO).
Signatories included Ralph Nader; Gary Ruskin, Director, Congressional
Accountability Project; Peter J. Sepp, Vice President for
Communications, National Taxpayers Union; Russell Verney, Chairman,
Reform Party; Paul Weyrich, President, Free Congress Foundation; and
Steve Dasbach, National Director, Libertarian National Committee.
Following is the text of the letter:
July 19, 1999
Speaker Dennis Hastert
House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
via telecopier (202) 225-5337 and (202) 225-7452
Dear Speaker Hastert and Minority Leader Gephardt:
We are writing to express our outrage at the passage of a $4,600 pay
raise for Members of Congress and a $200,000 raise for the President of
the United States of America.
Members of Congress currently earn a generous salary of $136,700 per
year, plus generous pensions, perquisites and benefits. They neither
need nor deserve yet another raise.
During the last ten years, House Members gave themselves five pay
raises, Senators six. Congressional salaries grew by $47,200 -- more
than $15,000 above inflation. In 1989, the base congressional salary
was $89,500.
The President doesn't need a raise either. The President currently
enjoys a salary of $200,000 per year, with perquisites, a $50,000
expense allowance, living expense benefits that befit a king, plus a
near certain prospect, if desired, of becoming a multimillionaire upon
leaving office. The value of a presidential pension is $152,000
annually in fiscal year 1999. Ten years ago, according to The New York
Times, Lloyd Cutler, then-chairman of the Commission on Executive,
Legislative and Judicial Salaries, estimated that the value of president
perquisites was then about $500,000 per year. Presidential candidates
Elizabeth Dole, Dan Quayle and Steve Forbes have all stated they oppose
this $200,000 presidential pay raise.
The Members of Congress and the President draw salaries from a federal
government that is currently $5.6 trillion in debt. If we are to reduce
the federal debt, the upper reaches of government must lead by example,
and sacrifice for the good of our country. That means the President and
Members of Congress first. Our nation's frugality should begin in the
homes of our top elected officials.
Citizens are greatly pleased when their elected leaders show some
honor, dignified self-restraint and humility, and forgo a pay raise.
Their moral authority grows. This intangible virtue and integrity is
very important.
If cooler heads do not prevail and reconsider these raises, then the
Members of Congress who voted for them will be called to account for
their greed in next year's elections.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
Gary Ruskin, Director, Congressional Accountability Project
Peter J. Sepp, Vice President for Communications, National Taxpayers
Union
Russell Verney, Chairman, Reform Party
Paul Weyrich, President, Free Congress Foundation
Steve Dasbach, National Director, Libertarian National Committee
<------------letter ends here------------>
BACKGROUND
The Congressional Accountability Project's testimony regarding the
proposed presidential pay raise is at
<http://www.essential.org/orgs/CAP/payperks/pressaltest.html>. Two news
releases about the proposed congressional pay raise are at:
<http://www.essential.org/orgs/CAP/payperks/pahikre99.html> and
<http://www.essential.org/orgs/CAP/payperks/thomasrel.html>.
On July 15, the House of Representatives held a floor vote on a
procedural matter which was widely interpreted as a vote on the
congressional and presidential pay raises. To find out how your House
Member voted, see:
<http://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=1999&rollnumber=300>
where a "yea" vote was a vote for the pay raises, and a "nay" vote was a
vote against the pay raises.
The Congressional Accountability Project is a congressional watchdog
group affiliated with Ralph Nader. For more information about
congressional and presidential salaries and perquisites, see
http://www.essential.org/orgs/CAP/CAP.html or send e-mail to
gary@essential.org.
To subscribe to Congressional Reform Briefings send the message:
subscribe CONG-REFORM your name
to listproc@essential.org
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Ruskin | Congressional Accountability Project
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/orgs/CAP/CAP.html |
mailto:gary@essential.org |
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