Perriello votes against pay raise

Edited by Chris Graham
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Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello today voted to block the automatic pay raise for federal lawmakers for the 2011 fiscal year.

He had successfully pushed to stop the congressional pay raise for the 2010 fiscal year, and had cosponsored other bills to achieve the same goal in 2011.

Perriello is also a co-sponsor of H.R. 1597, which would repeal the law that provides automatic pay adjustments for Members of Congress.

In addition to limiting his own salary, Rep. Perriello has also been frugal in his congressional office finances. In 2009, his office spent only 81 percent of its allowance, returning over $270,000 to the United States Treasury for deficit reduction. If all 435 members acted with such fiscal discipline, the deficit would decrease by over $110 million each year.

For this reason, he has also co-sponsored H.R. 3189, the TRIM Growth Act, which will prevent Members’ allowances from increasing if national unemployment is higher than 6 percent, or if the national debt is higher than $5.5 trillion.

“The American people aren’t getting a pay raise. Neither should Congress,” Perriello said. “While middle-class and working families are struggling to get by, it’s just not right to be spending taxpayers’ money on raises for Members of Congress. We’ve also shown that we can save taxpayer dollars by practicing fiscal discipline with our own office expenses.

“My office has returned over $270,000 to the U.S. Treasury just by making the same kind of common-sense cuts that families have to make at the kitchen table every day,” Perriello said. “These measures alone won’t cure our deficit woes, but they are important steps in the right direction.”