Measure to fund Congress on hold amid COLA debate

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan push to increase lawmakers’ salaries after a decade-long pay freeze is running into predictable obstacles and could be close to unraveling.

The issue has caused a ruckus inside the ranks of House Democrats, where freshmen in politically competitive districts are recoiling at the idea.

The tumult prompted Democratic leaders Monday night to delay action on annual legislation to fund congressional operations, a measure that Republicans used over the past eight years to block a yearly cost-ofliving pay increase that lawmakers are supposed to get automatically.

“That’s something that everybody would have to come together on in terms of bipartisanship,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a brief interview. “Until we have that there’s no reason to even discuss it.”

In a statement, the office of Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democrat, said the legislative appropriations measure was on hold “while we continue to discuss the issue of the cost-of-living adjustment.”

The annual COLA has been frozen since the beginning of former President Barack Obama’s tenure, and most lawmakers have never received one, including the staunchly conservative Republicans elected since the first tea party wave in 2010.

Rank and file lawmakers make $174,000 per year, a salary that doesn’t go nearly as far as it used to, especially with rapidly rising housing costs in the nation’s capital. Many lawmakers sleep in their offices during weeks in Washington rather than maintain two homes. Unless lawmakers vote to block it, they will receive the $4,500 COLA increase in January.