The House approved a $1.8 billion 1989 appropriations bill for Congress' own expenses Thursday, an election-year measure devoid of a pay raise that many lawmakers had talked about giving themselves. The measure was approved on a 253-133 vote and sent to the Senate for final congressional approval. The appropriations bill was one of five remaining that legislators are racing to complete by Saturday's start of federal fiscal year 1989. If all 13 are enacted by Saturday, it would be the first time since 1948 that all of the spending measures that finance government agencies were in place in time for the new year. Members of Congress have received base annual salaries of $89,500 since February 1987. But lawmakers have been coming under increasing public criticism for the large sums of money most of them receive for giving speeches to industry, labor and other groups. The amount of the payments _ called honoraria _ legislators can keep each year can total up to 30 percent of each representative's salary, and up to 40 percent of each senator's pay. Lawmakers have discussed lowering or eliminating the amount of honoraria permitted in exchange for increasing the base pay. After House-Senate negotiators working on the bill discussed the proposals briefly on Wednesday, they agreed not to address the issue in the spending measure. President Reagan is scheduled to propose salary adjustments for Congress and top federal officials in January. His proposal will be based on the recommendations that a special federal salary commission are scheduled to make in December. The money in the bill represents a 3 percent, or $59 million, increase over 1988 legislative spending. Of the total package, $506 million is for the House and $341 million for the Senate. The rest is for joint items such as the Capitol Police and for congressional agencies such as the Library of Congress.
