Text of the Amendment: No law, varying the compensation for the services of Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.
Plain English: This amendment does not allow any law to increase or decrease the salary of the salary of the members of Congress to take effect until the beginning of the next set of terms of office for the Representatives.
Story of its passage and ratification: This amendment was first drafted by James Madison from Virginia in 1789 and proposed by the First Congress on September 25, 1789. It was originally part of the original Bill of Rights along with eleven other amendments but only ten of the amendments were approved by the states and the amendment about congressional pay was not passed. This amendment was only originally ratified by six states but that wasn't enough to pass it. This amendment along with another one that dealt with adjusting the size of the House of Representatives according to population growth of the nation stayed unratified for a long time. However, in 1982 Gregory Watson, a twenty-year-old student at the University of Texas, wrote a term paper arguing for ratification of the amendment. He later went on a one-man campaign for the amendment's ratification after being discouraged by his teacher and being told that this amendment was unrealistic. Watson wrote letters to state legislators across the country starting with states where the House of Representatives and the Senate members were under control by the same party. He went to Maine who was the first state to ratify the amendement due to Wilson's campaign. Some states were supportive of this amendment and wanted it to be ratified. Other states didn't fully agree with the amendment but the state legislators voted to pass the ratification to please their voters. On May 20, 1992, after Michigan became the thirty-eighth state to ratify the amendment a few weeks earlier, the twenty seventh amendment became a part of the U.S. Constitution. This amendment wanted to prevent members of Congress that may choose to act in their own interests rather than the public interest when they passing laws that could raise their salaries. The amendment postpones salary increases until after an election so members of Congress may not immediately raise their own salaries during their term. The ratification process of the Twenty-seventh Amendment was the longest-running amendment effort in the history of the United States. After the amendment was proposed to Congress and failed to be ratified in 1789, it took over 200 years for it to be finally ratified and put in as an amendment in 1992. Before the 27th Amendment was ratified, the longest it had taken to ratify an amendment was four years and that was the 22nd Amendment. This leaves only one of the original twelve proposed amendments to the first Congress to not be passed.
Effect of the Amendment on the U.S.: This amendment had a limited effect on the U.S. The 27th amendment just affected the members of Congress and prevents them from giving themselves a pay raise until the next term of election. It just creates a restraint on Congress members so that they don’t have the power to change their compensation during the current term. It doesn't specify whether or not they couldn't give themselves more money in their salary or how much.
Effect of the Amendment on us: This amendment has a minimal effect on us. We are normal citizens of the United States and laws affecting the compensation of Congress members wouldn’t cause an impact on us. We may feel it is unfair that regular employees have to work very hard to earn a pay raise from their employers and Congress members could all just vote on a law to get a pay raise on the next election, provided that they get reelected. This amendment helps create obstacles for Congress from raising their pay from taxpayer's dollars. Instead of our money going toward raising the salaries of Congress members who may just be impeding progress for the nation, it should go towards better things like education or better infrastructure. Hopefully, the members of Congress that we voted on won’t spend unnecessary time on raising their salaries and instead focus on more important issues.
We pay their salaries, so if we don't like that congress people gave themselves a pay raise we can vote them out and vote in someone who promises to repeal that raise! I also think that congress people are "normal people" too;)
ReplyDeleteJust to play devil's advocate...should congressmen ever get a raise? What should their salaries be? Should they rise with inflation or with time served?
Delete