Norton's Bill Would Tie Congressional Pay to Spending Cuts

The District of Columbia's delegate to Congress says salaries for members of Congress should be reduced the next time automatic spending cuts take effect.

Democratic Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said she'll introduce a bill next week that would subject Congressional salaries to any future automatic, across-the-board cuts like those that took effect last month.

The 1985 law that established the process for the cuts explicitly exempts the president's salary and has been interpreted as exempting Congressional salaries.

Norton calls it “the definition of unfairness” for Congress to subject federal employees to effective pay cuts through furloughs when members are not willing to take pay cuts themselves. She has previously pledged to donate a day's pay for each day federal workers are furloughed.

The bill does not yet have any co-sponsors.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us