Senate Raise

In the coffee shop yesterday, I overheard a lady discussing the automatic pay raise that the Senate had voted to cancel for next year. The folks at the table were up in arms about the fact that our Senator (Richard Lugar) had voted against the freeze.

I asked who else had voted against the freeze, the ladies husband told me that there were 5 "no" votes, 2 republicans and 3 democrats. It didn't seem to interest them very much that there were 3 democrats (they are also of that party) The only thing that bothered them was that Sen. Lugar had voted against the freeze. They were under the impression that the un-used raise money was supposed to go to Hurricane Katrina relief.

I did a little research on my own and found the following...the bill passed on a 92-6 vote. The pay raise freeze was an amendment on a funding bill. The six no votes were as follows;

Senators:
Kit Bond (R) MO
Richard Lugar (R) IN
Jeff Bingaman (D) NM
Paul Sarbanes (D) MD
Daniel Inouye (D) HI
James Jeffords (I) VT...........Count this guy as a (D) based on his voting record.

2 Senators did not vote...

Saxby Chambliss (R) GA
John Corzine (D) NJ..........This fellow is running for Governor of NJ and probably did not want this on his record either way.

The raise that was frozen amounted to $3100 for each Senator and Congressman totaling under 1.7 million dollars, this is just a drop in the bucket for what will be needed in aid for the southern region. I know every little bit helps, but so far I haven't seen anything that states the money will be sent into the aid effort.

I'll do some more digging when I get the chance and post and update here.....