Social media posts claim that a $1.5 trillion spending bill includes a 21% pay raise for Congress members. But their pay has been frozen since 2009.
After President Joe Biden signed the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill into law on March 15, claims about an alleged pay raise for Congress members began circulating on social media.
“While you are paying record prices at the grocery store and gas pump, our politicians in Congress voted for a 21% pay raise for themselves,” Buzz Patterson, a former congressional candidate, wrote on Twitter. Donald Trump Jr. repeated the claim in a tweet.
VERIFY viewer Nancy also texted the team to ask whether Congress members gave themselves a 21% pay raise.
Did Congress members give themselves a 21% pay raise?
No, Congress members did not give themselves a 21% pay raise. A freeze on Congress members’ pay has been in place since 2009.
Some of the claims about a salary increase in the 2022 omnibus spending bill passed by Congress and signed into law by Biden on March 15 stemmed from a misleading Front Page Magazine headline. It claimed Congress gave itself a 21% pay raise, but the article notes that it’s “not technically a pay hike for Congress members.”
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