Article snippet: WASHINGTON — Last week, a group of freshman Democrats — primarily from districts long held by Republicans — approached the House majority leader with a seemingly odd demand: Block our pay raises. It has been 10 years since members of Congress have gotten even a cost-of-living increase, and the leader, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, had privately negotiated a deal with Reps. Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, and Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican, to allow pay on Capitol Hill to rise with inflation — without the usual political attacks that follow. But for Democrats facing tough reelection campaigns, the threat of attack served to underscore a decades-old reality about congressional pay raises: The political optics were just not worth it. “I just think it’s the wrong move for Congress to talk about the cost-of-living adjustment when there are all these glaring problems that have yet to be fixed and are waiting for congressional action,” said Rep. Ben McAdams, a freshman Democrat who won his Utah seat by 694 votes. As a result, a vast spending bill for the fiscal year that begins in October will reach the House floor on Wednesday without the section that covers Congress as lawmakers negotiate whether to maintain the frozen pay rate of $174,000 a year for rank-and-file members. “The reason we have done this in a bipartisan fashion is because people are demagoguing it, and I don’t want any of my members who are in tough districts s... Link to the full article to read more