Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is sponsoring legislation that would stop federal lawmakers from receiving automatic pay raises to keep pace with inflation.
McCaskill, a Democrat, introduced the legislation Wednesday along with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and nine other senators.
Under federal law, members of the U.S. House and Senate receive an automatic cost-of-living raise unless they vote to reject it. McCaskill wants to repeal that provision, meaning Congress members would have to vote for a pay raise to get one.
Senators and representatives are paid $174,000 a year. Their last pay increase occurred at the beginning of 2009. They rejected their scheduled pay raises for 2010 and 2011.