Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — In a rare outbreak of political solidarity, lawmakers agreed Tuesday that giving themselves a pay raise in an election year with the unemployment rate hovering near 10 percent is a bad idea.
The House voted 402-15 to deny members an automatic cost-of- living raise in fiscal year 2011, which begins in October. The vote deprives them of an estimated $1,600 increase and keeps annual salaries at $174,000 a year. The Senate took identical action five days earlier.
Lawmakers put a freeze on their salaries last year, resolving that padding their incomes during the depths of the recession would not sit well with voters back home.
The Associated Press
