Wright Allows House Vote on Pay Raise

WASHINGTON Speaker of the House Jim Wright caved in yesterday to opponents of a 51 percent congressional pay raise, conceding "the majority has spoken" in demanding a vote that will likely keep senators and representatives from getting any increase.

Wright had planned to let the raise take effect tomorrow, then have the House vote the next day to scale it back to 30 percent.

Yesterday, however, after opponents won a dramatic vote to keep the issue alive on the House floor, he relented and said the chamber will vote today.

"The majority will rule," he said, promising a vote that "will be plain,...pretty damn simple."

One leading opponent of the raise, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, said Wright's capitulation showed he had realized "that the power of the people is greater than the power of his tyranny in [trying to] close down the House of Representatives until the members got their salary increase."

The speaker gave no indication whether the vote would also repeal raises for federal judges and top executive branch officials. Members of Congress would see their annual salaries jump from $89,500 to $135,000 under the proposal.

The raises, recommended by a presidential commission, had been supported by President Bush and by ex-President Ronald W. Reagan. The commission, formed in 1967, meets every four years to recommend pay levels.

A House vote will require coordination with the Senate, which voted 95-5 for a more complicated rejection measure last Thursday that included a plan to roll back the increase for Congress and the executive branch officials.

Wright said he has been in touch with Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Maine) on a common approach that would be needed to send legislation rescinding the raise to Bush.

Both houses must approve resolutions rejecting the plan to stop it.

The turnaround came after pay raise opponents mustered a 238-88 majority against a House Democratic leadership motion to adjourn.

"The majority has spoken, and the majority will speak emphatically," Wright said afterwords.

The chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Bill Gray (D-Penn.), predicted there would be "no pay raise, no change" in the lawmakers' salary. Gray also said he doubted the House would move to ban speaking fees and other honoraria--a plan favored by Wright in return for the raise.

Gray said members feared a vote to end yesterday's debate and adjourn "was going to be interpreted as a vote on the pay raise." He said any vote to increase lawmakers' salary now would fail. Even "if it's a vote on 4 percent, it ain't going to pass," Gray added.

"This pay raise is dead," said Rep. Thomas Tauke (R-Iowa), an architect of the opposition strategy.

Tauke, however, said he expects Congress to take up the issue later, along with a review of honoraria, often paid to members by special interests seeking to influence legislation.

The vote and Wright's subsequent announcement came after Majority Leader Thomas Foley (D-Wash.), presiding over yesterday's session, refused to recognize a pay-raise opponent who wanted to introduce a resolution calling for a vote on the hike.

That set the stage for more than 30 minutes of barbed debate between the two sides.

From the start, the House electronic tote board showed the adjournment motion, made by House Majority Whip Tony Coelho (D-Calif.), was losing.