Congressional Accountability Pay Act

Congressional Accountability Pay Act - Amends the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 to revise the method of adjusting the annual rate of pay of Members of Congress.

Requires a decrease in the rate of pay for each Member by a specified percentage if outlays for any fiscal year are greater than outlays for the preceding fiscal year.

Amends the Federal Salary Act of 1967 to require that recommendations by the Citizens' Commission on Public Service and Compensation conform with this Act, except those for the salaries of the Chief Justice of the United States, judges of U.S. district courts, and judges of the U.S. Court of International Trade.

[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3136 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3136

To provide for rates of pay for Members of Congress to be adjusted as a 
              function of changes in Government spending.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 6, 2011

  Mr. Forbes introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on 
   Oversight and Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide for rates of pay for Members of Congress to be adjusted as a 
              function of changes in Government spending.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Congressional Accountability Pay 
Act''.

SEC. 2. CHANGE IN METHOD FOR ADJUSTING PAY.

    Section 601(a) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 
U.S.C. 31) is amended to read as follows:
    ``Sec. 601. (a)(1) This subsection applies with respect to--
            ``(A) each Senator, Member of the House of Representatives, 
        and Delegate to the House of Representatives, and the Resident 
        Commissioner from Puerto Rico,
            ``(B) the President pro tempore of the Senate, the majority 
        leader and the minority leader of the Senate, and the majority 
        leader and the minority leader of the House of Representatives, 
        and
            ``(C) the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
    ``(2) Whenever outlays for any fiscal year are greater than outlays 
for the preceding fiscal year, then, effective as of the first day of 
the first applicable pay period beginning on or after January 1 of the 
calendar year next beginning after the close of the second of those 2 
fiscal years, the rate of pay for each position under paragraph (1) 
shall be decreased by the percentage (rounded to the nearest \1/10\ of 
1 percent) equal to the percentage by which outlays for the second of 
those 2 fiscal years are greater than outlays for the first of those 2 
fiscal years, but in no event below $1.
    ``(3) The Congressional Budget Office shall prescribe any 
regulations necessary to carry out this subsection, including 
regulations governing the determination of total outlays for a fiscal 
year.
    ``(4) For purposes of this subsection, the term `outlays' means 
budget outlays, as defined by section 3 of the Congressional Budget and 
Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 622).
    ``(5) This subsection shall apply for purposes of determining rates 
of pay for pay periods beginning on or after January 1, 2013.''.

SEC. 3. COORDINATION RULE.

    (a) In General.--Section 225(l)(3) of the Federal Salary Act of 
1967 (2 U.S.C. 362(3)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(C) Notwithstanding any other provision of this subsection, in 
the case of a position referred to in section 601(a) of the Legislative 
Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 31), no recommendation referred to 
in this subsection (in the matter before paragraph (1)) may be made 
which, if enacted, would cause the rate of pay for any such position to 
differ from the rate of pay which would, as of any given time, then be 
payable with respect to such position under such section 601(a).''.
    (b) Exclusion of Judges.--Such section 225(l)(3) is further 
amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking all that follows 
        ``recommended for'' and inserting ``the Speaker of the House of 
        Representatives and the Vice President of the United States, 
        respectively, shall be equal.''; and
            (2) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking all that follows 
        ``a Delegate to the House of Representatives,'' and that 
        precedes ``and each office or position under section 5313 of 
        title 5''.
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