Sponsor
Ralph Norman
Representative · R-SC
The bill shifts Member pay from an automatic, formula-based adjustment to explicit congressional decisions — increasing legislative control and transparency but risking politicized, unpredictable outcomes for Members' real pay and taxpayer costs.
Members of Congress: automatic, formula-based pay increases tied to the Employment Cost Index and the GS cross-reference are removed so future raises must be set by separate congressional action, giving Congress direct control and flexibility over Member pay.
Taxpayers and voters: requiring explicit congressional legislation for Member pay changes makes raises more visible and subject to public and media scrutiny, increasing accountability.
Taxpayers: without an objective automatic cap, future ad hoc congressional raises could be politically driven and impose unpredictable costs on taxpayers.
Members of Congress: losing the automatic cost-of-living adjustment tied to the ECI means nominal pay may lag inflation unless Congress acts to authorize increases, reducing real compensation over time.
Federal employees and taxpayers: removing the automatic mechanism politicizes salary decisions for Members, creating potential partisan disputes and uneven treatment compared with other federal pay schedules.
Based on analysis of 1 section of legislative text.
Eliminates the automatic ECI‑based annual pay adjustment for Members of Congress and removes the GS cap/rounding linkage; replaces a statutory cross‑reference with "adjusted as provided by law."
Official title: To repeal the provision of law that provides automatic pay adjustments for Members of Congress.
Introduced February 20, 2026 by Ralph Norman · Last progress February 20, 2026
Repeals the statutory automatic annual cost‑of‑living pay adjustment for Members of Congress that was tied to the Employment Cost Index (ECI) and removed the related rounding and cap rules that limited Member pay increases to no more than the General Schedule (GS) adjustment in a calendar year. It also updates legislative text so previous subparagraph formatting becomes paragraphs and replaces a cross‑reference phrase with a generic "adjusted as provided by law." The change takes effect on the date the 120th Congress convenes.
Representative · R-SC