BURSTRep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) vowed to vote against this week's continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government over a provision that authorizes an automatic pay raise for members of Congress.
“We should be working to raise Americans’ wages and lower their health care costs, not slipping new taxpayer-funded perks for ourselves into must-pass legislation behind closed doors,” Golden wrote in a Wednesday post on the social platform X. “As long as raises and new health care perks for members are in the CR, I will vote against it.”
Congressional lawmakers unveiled on Tuesday a large funding bill that would keep the government funded until March 14, averting a shutdown Friday.
The most recent CR, which spans more than 1,500 pages, would allow lawmakers to receive their first pay raise since 2009.
Members of Congress get $174,000 a year, while those in leadership earn more.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have steered away from increasing their pay for fear of political retaliation in their districts once they are due for reelection.
But others who have been in support of a hike point to the high cost of living in two locations, saying that refusing to raise congressional salaries discourages those who aren't independently wealthy from running for office.
“Every year a few members of Congress work up the nerve to advocate for pay raises and every time I have worked across the aisle to oppose them,” Golden said in March. “I have always said: Membership in Congress is about service, not a paycheck. At a time when members already earn far more than the average American, and when the public has little faith in their elected officials, the last thing we need is a raise.”
The CR also includes a one-year farm bill extension, approximately $100 billion in disaster relief and some $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers, among other features.