In the waning hours when the Democrats were still in control of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi and her fellows secretly gave themselves a $34,000-a-year pay raise, and Republicans are furious over the quit deal they were not told about.
Worse, this pay raise was never brought to the floor or debated because Pelosi snuck the pay rise into the House’s internal rules instead of putting it where it belongs in any of the annual spending and budget bills, the Daily Mail reported.
The Republicans were not even told about the secret pay raise until this Jan. 10, after they had taken control of the lower chamber.
Democrats defended the pay raise because it increases the amount members can be reimbursed by the U.S. Treasury for lodging, food, and travel. They claimed that this pay raise was necessary to increase the pool of people who can run for Congress, people who are not as wealthy as most in the House.
This pay raise is on top of the $175,000 a year members of the House make already. But, these same members also get an additional $1.27 million each to manage officers and pay staffers.
But Republicans called the pay raise “clandestine” because it was not debated on the floor.
Per the paper:
The House Administration Committee — then headed by California Democrat Zoe Lofgren — approved the reimbursement on December 30, 2022, with no lawmaker on the panel opposing the change.
Under the new rule, House members could be subsidized about $34,000 for their expenses in DC, where they live for weeks on end. That means that if all 440 current members and delegates requested the maximum amount, the reimbursements would total around $15.1 million.
In Congress, expenses are capped at a per diem rate by the General Services Administration. The GSA’s daily lodging per diem varies between $190 and $260 depending on the season.
The per diem for food currently stands at $79 per day, meaning a lawmaker in DC for congressional business could expense up to about $340 each day.
The money for these expenses would come from the Member’s Representational Allowance, the account that covers official expenses, according to Bloomberg.
Congressmen also get up to 80 percent of their pay for life as a pension after they leave office after five years of service. They also have lifetime healthcare coverage.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are losing thousands a year thanks to Bidenflation.
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