This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
WASHINGTON - Are you getting a $3,300 pay raise?
Congress will.
Despite Rep. Jim Matheson's annual argument to have a vote on whether Congress should get a 2 percent pay raise, House members sided with the automatic hike during a debate over a spending bill for several departments. It's the sixth time Matheson, Utah's only Democratic House member, has tried to get a vote on the pay raise and the sixth time he's lost.
"We continue to swim in a pool of red ink," Matheson said on the House floor Tuesday. "I don't think it's appropriate to have this . . . raise go through without an up or down vote."
House members disagreed 249 to 167 in a procedural vote that avoids a debate over pay. Republican Reps. Rob Bishop and Chris Cannon voted to move forward, and Matheson voted against the rule. Matheson - who declines the raise until the next one takes effect - was the only House member to bring up the pay hike.
Pending Senate approval, rank-and-file members of Congress will earn $168,500 starting in January 2007.
Matheson introduced a bill last year to eliminate the automatic pay raise, part of a broader spending bill, but the legislation has languished in two House committees since December.