U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Co-Sponsors Bipartisan Bill To Halt Automatic Congressional Pay Raises

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is co-sponsoring legislation aimed at scrapping a decade-old law that automatically raises the annual salary of members of Congress.

Giffords, who opposed congressional pay raises throughout her first term, will donate this year's $4,700 salary increase to food banks in her Southern Arizona district.

"Our economy is reeling like no time since the dark days of the Great Depression," Giffords said. "My constituents - hard-working men and women from all walks of life - are struggling to make ends meet. To accept a salary increase under these circumstances would be an insult to them and a violation of the responsibility they have placed in me."

The bipartisan bill Giffords is co-sponsoring was recently introduced by Reps. Harry Mitchell, a Democrat from Tempe, and Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas. It has more than 50 co-sponsors and is supported by the National Taxpayers Union, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and The Senior Citizens League. If the measure becomes law, members of Congress would forgo their 2010 pay raise, which would save taxpayers an estimated $2.5 million.

Last year, a similar effort by Mitchell and Paul to prevent the 2009 pay raise form taking effect did not become law. That measure had 34 bipartisan cosponsors, including Giffords.

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