The House

To Kill A Raise By a vote of 380 to 48, the House passed a resolution (HJ Res 129) disapproving pay raises proposed for members of Congress, federal judges and top officials of the executive branch. The measure was then adopted by the Senate and sent to President Bush for his signature, officially killing the pay raises. The increases were proposed in December by a federal commission and sent to Capitol Hill on Jan. 9 by then-President Reagan.

Congressional salaries would have risen nearly 51% to $135,000 under the proposal.

Craig James (R-Fla.), who supported the resolution, said he was glad the House did not permit the raises to take effect automatically. “Allowing this absurd increase to go into effect without a vote would have constituted an ethical atrocity that this body would not have been able to live down,” he said.

Pay raise supporter Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), told colleagues: “It’s high time we stop whipping ourselves” over the pay issue because “each member of this house, Democrat and Republican, is worth a salary of $135,000.”

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Anderson(D) x Rep. Dixon(D) x Rep. Dymally(D) x Rep. Gallegly(R) x Rep. Levine(D) x Rep. Rohrabacher(R) x

To Force a Pay Vote By a vote of 88 to 238, the House rejected a parliamentary strategy to avert a direct vote on proposed pay increases for members of Congress, federal judges and top executive branchemployees.

Democratic and Republican leaders had hoped to sidestep a vote by keeping the House out of session until after the Feb. 8 date on which the raises were to take effect in the absence of House and Senate blocking action.

But with this vote on Monday, the House refused to adjourn without voting on the pay increase. The upshot was that Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) agreed to an up-or-down vote (above) that scuttled the raises.

Members voting yes endorsed the leadership plan to allow the pay increases to take effect Wednesday without a record vote in the House.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Anderson(D) x Rep. Dixon(D) x Rep. Dymally(D) x Rep. Gallegly(R) x Rep. Levine(D) x Rep. Rohrabacher(R) x