Bennet slaps down automatic pay raises for members of Congress

Senator Michael Bennet today joined U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and 11 other Senators in introducing legislation to prevent Congress from getting an automatic pay raise each year. The legislation, which mirrors legislation that was previously introduced by Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) during the last Congress, would end the annual cost-of-living adjustment provided to members of Congress, which results in an automatic pay raise each year.

“Members of Congress should not get automatic pay raises while Coloradans and all Americans are struggling to make ends meet,” said Bennet in a press release. “If members of Congress think they deserve a pay raise, they should have to justify it to the American people openly and on the record.”

In recent years, Congress passed individual bills to eliminate the pay raise for 2010 and 2011. However, those bills did not permanently remove the automatic pay raise as would be the case under the legislation introduced today.

Scot Kersgaard has been managing editor of a political newspaper, editor and co-owner of a ski town newspaper, executive editor of eight high-tech magazines (where he worked with current Apple CEO Tim Cook), deputy press secretary to a U.S. Senator, and an outdoors columnist at the Rocky Mountain News. He has an English degree from the University of Washington. He was awarded a fellowship to study internet journalism at the University of Maryland's Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. He was student body president in college. He spends his free time hiking and skiing.

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