{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases/golden-fitzpatrick-successfully-prevent-congressional-pay-raises-in-2024-spending-package", "Golden, Fitzpatrick successfully prevent Congressional pay raises in 2024 spending package", "2024-03-21", "2024", "2024-03", "Democrat", "House", "ME", "Jared F. Golden", "G000592", "golden.house.gov", "golden", "https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2014 Congressmen Jared Golden (ME-02) and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01) announced today they have successfully prevented a congressional pay raise in the appropriations package released by House and Senate leaders early Thursday morning.\n\nEarlier this month, Golden and Fitzpatrick \u2014 joined by a bipartisan group of colleagues in the House \u2014 sent a letter to the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees urging them to reject efforts to include a Cost-of-Living Adjustment, or COLA, in the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bill.\n\n\u201cEvery year a few members of Congress work up the nerve to advocate for pay raises and every time I have worked across the aisle to oppose them,\u201d Golden said. \u201cI have always said: Membership in Congress is about service, not a paycheck. At a time when members already earn far more than the average American, and when the public has little faith in their elected officials, the last thing we need is a raise.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m glad to see member pay raises are not included in this year\u2019s government funding package,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cHard working Americans don\u2019t automatically receive a pay increase every year and neither should Congress. We\u2019re here to work for our constituents and fix real issues, not raise our own salaries.\u201d\n\nMembers\u2019 $174,000 annual salary is roughly three times the average individual salary in Maine, and higher than the annual pay of roughly 96 percent of Mainers. Golden has advocated against Congressional raises since his first term in Congress.\n\nThe full letter to the Appropriations chairs is available here. In addition to Golden and Fitzpatrick, co-signers include Reps. Sharice Davids (KS-03), Chris Pappas (NH-01), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03), John Curtis (UT-03), Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Angie Craig (MN-02), Don Bacon (NE-02), and Elissa Slotkin (MI-07).", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T20:32:04Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases/golden-fitzpatrick-successfully-prevent-congressional-pay-raises-in-2024-spending-package"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.404465038329363, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}