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Shortly after his election as House Speaker, Representative Bob Livingston (R-LA) appeared on the NBC news show Meet the Press. Among the questions fielded by the new Speaker was one on the timeliness of a congressional pay raise. Here's his response.
"Well, we've not had a cost-of-living adjustment in the last year. We had one the previous year. I think that when you compare to all the cost-of-living adjustments for both military and civilian employees, you'll see that the members of Congress have gotten a lot fewer cost-of-living adjustments. I'm not against giving members of Congress a cost-of-living adjustment."
When asked if he would push for a pay raise bill, Livingston replied:
"I haven't made up my mind whether I'll push for it, but I think that the members, frankly, deserve it. One thing I'd like to say about that is that Republican and Democrat alike, members of Congress are hard-working people. I realize they get a bad rap in the media, and at election time, frankly, we're all targets for political reasons. But every single member represents about 600,000 people back home, and they work hard to represent those people. If they don't work hard, they're tossed out, and rightfully so. I think that, frankly, periodically, it's not unreasonable that they should be entitled to a pay raise."
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