Jon Kyl: “I will simply describe the amendment's content. What this amendment does is provide that for this coming year--the…”

“I will simply describe the amendment's content. What this amendment does is provide that for this coming year--the fiscal year which began this October--the annual COLA for Members of Congress not go into effect. That pay increase, in effect, is estimated to be at about 1.9 percent for Members of Congress, and it actually takes effect in January or February. The amendment is projected to save about $2 million for the Federal Treasury. Mr. President, as you know, some years the COLA has gone into effect and other years Congress has not had the COLA go into effect for Members of Congress. The reason for not having it go into effect this year, frankly, is symbolic. We know we are going to be spending a lot of taxpayer dollars to help rebuild the gulf coast area following the hurricane and the related events to that. We also know that unless we find ways to offset that spending, we are going to go further into debt, that our deficit for this year will increase. So the leaders of both the House and the Senate have asked the various committees to find ways to reduce spending in other areas so we can offset some of the expense of this reconstruction with that reduced spending.…”