Bipartisan group of lawmakers calls for $8,700 pay cut in 2011

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http://thehill.com/homenews/house/106629-bipartisan-group-of-lawmakers-calls-for-8700-pay-cut-next-year

A bipartisan contingent of freshman and sophomore lawmakers is pushing House appropriators to cut the salaries of lawmakers by $8,700 each next year.

The 5 percent cut would save taxpayers $4.7 million and comes more than a month after Congress voted and President Barack Obama signed a measure to freeze congressional pay for 2011.

Not satisfied with halting next year’s automatic pay raise for Congress, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) and seven other freshman and sophomore lawmakers wrote a letter on Wednesday evening to Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), the chairwoman and ranking member of the Legislative Branch subcommittee on Appropriations, asking them to slice congressional pay next year.

(snip)
“Members have an opportunity to lead by example at the federal level and do what many of our families and communities have already started to do – cut back,” the bipartisan group wrote. “Senators and Representatives can send a clear and simple message to everyone back home that we understand that they are hurting…and that our country wants a new Washington, not the same old Washington.”