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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 5th district |
Should Congress get lifetime health care, more? SC lawmaker aims to end ‘perks’
YORK COUNTY
Lyndon B. Johnson takes the oath of office hours after President John F. Kennedy was shot in 1963. It wasn't until four years later that the 25th Amendment, setting rules on succession related to vacancies and disabilities in the office of the president, was ratified. (JFK Library/Reuters)
Supporters of Donald Trump in October 2016. (Evan Vucci/AP)
U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman of Rock Hill and another legislator are looking to end lifetime health care and other benefits for themselves and hundreds of other members of Congress.
Norman and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna have introduced the Stop Congressional Retirees’ Accessing Perks – or SCRAP – Act. The bill would end some lifetime benefits to members of Congress, from health care to legislative access.
Norman is an S.C. Republican, representing the 5th District. Khanna is a California Democrat. Both were elected to first terms since last summer.
“Members of Congress are elected to serve their constituents, not to reap numerous perks for the rest of their lives once they leave office,” Norman said in a statement. “Most Americans do not have similar lifetime benefits when they leave their job.
The issue isn’t just the cost, according to Norman.
“Retired members still have the same amount of access throughout the Capitol complex, and over 430 former members of Congress are now lobbyists, representing special interest groups — giving them special, direct contact to sitting members writing legislation,” he said.
“Lifetime access to this exclusive circle keeps them in that circle, and distances former members from the experiences of everyday Americans.”
Khanna released a statement calling out the “luxuries” granted to former legislators.
“Former members of Congress should play by the same rules as everyday Americans who work for a living before retiring,” he said. “It is time to end the luxuries that former members of Congress still receive after they leave office at the expense of Americans’ tax dollars.”
Khanna, too, expressed concern about former legislators impacting current work.
“These lifetime perks have to go, in order to clean up a Congress under the influence of special interests,” he said. “By ending the access currently allowed to current members, like access to the House and Senate floors and member gyms and dining rooms, we can build a stronger democracy for and by the people, not former electeds.”
Their legislation was introduced in the House on Thursday.
It was referred to committees on House administration, rules and oversight and government reform.
The new rules would have to pass House and Senate votes, then get a signature from the president, to become law.
A cost — or savings — estimate for the bill hadn’t been determined by the Congressional Budget Office as of Friday.
Source:>>>>>>>>>>>>>Here
What are the salary and benefits of a senator?
Salary and Member Benefits. The U.S. Constitution, in Article I, Section 6, authorizes compensation for Members of Congress “ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.” Currently, Members' salary is $174,000annually.
Do members of Congress get paid for life?
The claim means that rank-and-file members of the House of Representatives would receive the full payment of $174,000 per year, for the rest of their lives, after serving as little as two years. Nice work if you can get it. But members of Congress can't. Jan 11, 2013
What are the perks of being a Congressman?
But there are few company perks that compare with these 10 taken together.
- A base annual salary of $174,000.
- Free airport parking. ...
- A free, on-site gym for House members. ...
- Weakened insider trading restrictions. ...
- Up to 239 days off. ...
- Congress receives health-care subsidies under Obamacare. ...
- A better retirement plan.
Term limits in the United States
Term limits in the United States apply to many offices at both the federal and state level and date back to the American Revolution.
Term limits, also referred to as rotation in office, restrict the number of terms of office an officeholder may hold.
Sorry, Mr. President: Term limits for Congress are still not going to happen
During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump made term limits for Congress an integral part of his plan for how to make Washington less, well, swampy.
We didn't hear much from him about the idea after he won. Until now, 15 months into his presidency. Trump tweeted Monday that he had met with a handful of members of Congress who want to term-limit themselves. Some conservative lawmakers have been tweeting their support for the idea, too.
I recently had a terrific meeting with a bipartisan group of freshman lawmakers who feel very strongly in favor of Congressional term limits. I gave them my full support and endorsement for their efforts. #DrainTheSwamp
Thank you, Mr. President! The 22nd Amendment limited the terms of our president; it’s time to do the same for Congress starting with our freshman class. Let’s change the DC culture and give power back to the people - #DrainTheSwamp!
But don't let this sudden momentum on the right for term limits fool you. It's almost certainly not going to happen anytime soon, for a variety of reasons, such as these:
1. It's unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court ruled as much in 1995. As I wrote in October 2016when Trump first proposed term limits: A 5-to-4 decision essentially wiped off the books term-limit laws that 23 states had for their congressional delegations. (The decision didn't affect term limits for state legislatures, and there are 15 states that impose them.)
That means that for congressional term limits to become legal again, Congress would have to amend the Constitution. Trump proposed a constitutional amendment during the campaign, and one member of Congress, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), has a bill out now to do that.
2. Changing the Constitution is really, really hard.
Lyndon B. Johnson takes the oath of office hours after President John F. Kennedy was shot in 1963. It wasn't until four years later that the 25th Amendment, setting rules on succession related to vacancies and disabilities in the office of the president, was ratified. (JFK Library/Reuters)
It's one of the most difficult things to do in politics. It requires agreement by a two-thirds supermajority in Congress (both chambers) and then ratification by three-fourths of states or 38 out of 50. (Alternatively, 34 states could agree to call a constitutional convention to go around Congress, which has never happened.)
As I previously wrote, only 27 proposals out of countless ideas in our country's 240-year history have climbed that steep hill. And the circumstances leading to such action were often extreme, including political crises, war and death.
The idea of term limits tends to get better reception on the right, so it's worth pointing out that Republicans control the legislatures in 32 states.
3. One word: Lobbyists.
Supporters of Donald Trump in October 2016. (Evan Vucci/AP)
If there's a profession in Washington more derided than members of Congress, it's lobbyists. (And journalists, depending on whom you're talking to.)
Political scientists say limiting how long lawmakers can stay in Washington would only empower the infrastructure surrounding Congress, like lobbyists (and, yes, the media). There are no rules about how long these professionals can stay so they can spend years gaining expertise on the intricacies of legislating that term-limited members of Congress simply wouldn't or could never have.
If members are restricted to only serving a few terms,” Molly Reynolds, a congressional expert with the Brookings Institution, told The Fix in a previous email, “the logic goes, they have neither the time nor the incentive to develop the relevant expertise they need to be good at their jobs. If members don’t have that expertise themselves, they’re more likely to rely on outsiders, including lobbyists, to replace that expertise.”
4. Another word: Staffers.
Let's get real: The idea of a majority of lawmakers voting to end their political careers is laughable, at least in the near future. History is littered with broken self-imposed term-limit promises.
The Washington Post's Robert Costa reports that lawmakers also discussed with Trump on Monday the idea of term-limiting staffers.
That is “a terrible idea,” said Cornell law professor and constitutional law expert Josh Chafetz, much for the same reason as limiting lawmakers' jobs: It would empower people outside the Capitol. A staffer's job is to be the expert in a subject area for their boss.
“Staffers need time to become experts on substantive areas and on how Congress works as an institution. Term-limiting them would make acquiring that knowledge impossible,” Chafetz said. It “would just wind up shifting even more power toward lobbyists and toward the executive.”
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I do not think that the Founding Father's when they created our Republic, had it mind that serving," WE THE PEOPLE " was supposed to be a career with benefits and lifetime retirement.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato (429-347 BC)
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