Copyright 1999 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday (New York, NY)
September 30, 1999, Thursday NASSAU AND
SUFFOLK EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Page A08
LENGTH: 376 words
HEADLINE:
PAY DOUBLED FOR NEXT PRESIDENT / CLINTON SIGNS BILL GIVING VP AND CONGRESS
RAISE, TOO
BYLINE: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: Washington
BODY:
Washington - President Bill Clinton signed legislation yesterday that will
double future presidents' annual salaries to $ 400,000 and let members of
Congress collect their second pay increase in two years.
House and
Senate members' salaries will climb by $ 4,600 to $ 141,300 a year beginning in
January. Members of Congress last got a pay increase in January, 1998, and
before that in 1993. The increase to $ 400,000 will be the first presidential
pay raise since 1969, but it will not take effect until Clinton leaves office
Jan. 20, 2001. The Constitution forbids any change in a president's salary while
he is in office.
The measure also gives raises to Vice President Al
Gore, cabinet secretaries and about 1,300 other top-level branch officials in
January. By law, they are entitled to the same 3.4 percent increase received by
members of Congress.
Gore will earn $ 181,400, while cabinet secretaries
will make $ 157,000.
Under congressional pay scales, leaders earn more
than rank-and-file members, topped by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who
will make $ 181,400 in January.
Moreover, federal civil servants'
salaries will rise by 4.8 percent a year, their highest annual increase since
1981.
The increases were part of a $ 28 billion measure financing the
Treasury Department and some smaller agencies for the fiscal year beginning
tomorrow.
Clinton signed the bill in an Oval Office ceremony attended by
several members of Congress and news photographers.
In a printed
statement, Clinton did not mention the pay increases. Instead, he called
attention to a new requirement that health plans for federal employees must
offer prescription contraceptive coverage, with an exception
for plans that object to such coverage on religious grounds.
By law,
members of Congress receive an annual salary increase unless they vote to block
it, and the Treasury bill is the traditional vehicle for doing that.
The
measure contained no language preventing the congressional pay increase, nor was
it mentioned during brief debate.
While congressional pay increases
often have triggered heated debates, there was no serious challenge to the
latest increase. The bill passed the Senate, 54-38, and the House, 292 to 126.
GRAPHIC: AP Photo - President Bill Clinton signs a bill
that includes a pay raise for members of Congress, effective January.
LOAD-DATE: September 30, 1999
