Chris Van Hollen: “I think the record should be clear that every year that the Congress has frozen Federal employee pay, we have also…”

“I think the record should be clear that every year that the Congress has frozen Federal employee pay, we have also frozen congressional pay. What we have not done is try to hold Federal employee pay hostage to what we do on congressional pay. We should also be very clear that all of us on the Democratic side support freezing congressional pay in the year 2013. Indeed, Mr. Cummings and I, Mr. Hoyer and others have introduced legislation to do just that. It's H.R. 3858. The Democratic leadership asked that we be able to bring that up on the suspension calendar today, and we were denied that opportunity. So I now ask unanimous consent that, after we complete debate on this bill, we add to today's suspension calendar H.R. 3858 so that we can vote as a body on freezing congressional pay. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the guidelines consistently issued by successive Speakers, as recorded on page 752 of the House Rules and Manual, the Chair is constrained not to entertain the gentleman's request unless it has been cleared by the bipartisan floor and committee leaderships.”