Gluesenkamp Perez on CNN: “This Job is About Serving Our Communities”

Yesterday, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) joined her fellow Blue Dog Coalition Co-Chair, Rep. Jared Golden (ME-02), on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper to discuss their continued opposition to an increase in pay for Members of Congress, as included in the proposed stopgap measure this week.

Earlier this year, Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez joined her bipartisan colleagues to successfully block a pay raise in FY24 appropriations legislation. In June, she called on her bipartisan colleagues to block a pay raise in FY25 appropriations legislation. 

Video of the interview can be found here. The following is a transcript of the interview:

“TAPPER: Congressman Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat of Washington. I want to get to why I invited you here in a second. But first, just your reaction: What should Democrats do, given the fact that Trump and the Republicans are now opposing this compromise that Johnson reached with Hakeem Jeffries and others? 

GOLDEN: You know, the Republicans are in the majority in the House, right? So, I think that’s a good question for speaker Mike Johnson. Obviously, I wasn’t going to vote for what they were putting forward here. And we’re going to talk about that. But, you know, it seems to me like keeping it simple at this point. We still got time to get it right, here. And if we got to stay through Christmas, so be it. You got to do the right thing for the country. 

TAPPER: So, let’s talk about why I did invite you here, if that’s okay, which is that you two are very vocally opposed to the part of the plan that includes a pay raise for Members of Congress. Currently, I think the average member of Congress makes $174,000 a year. And you don’t want Members of Congress to get a raise. Why not? 

GLUESENKAMP PEREZ: Why should they? I mean, I don’t know many families that would look at $174[,000] and say it’s not enough to raise a family on and have a good living. And I think it’s, you know, I think it’s important that we are a representative body that are living in the same reality as everyone else, which is where you can’t just, like, wave a wand and, you know, have a COLA, have a pay raise. It doesn’t make sense to me. And I don’t, you know, I think it doesn’t make sense to the people in my community that, you know, you can just give yourself a pay raise when you feel like it.

TAPPER: What’s the proposed pay raise? How much is it from $174,000 to, do you know? 

GOLDEN: Yeah. The COLA would be about $6,600. Take you up to about $180,000. It’s a cost-of-living adjustment. But it’s a pretty big pay raise, by the way. 

TAPPER: It’s a $6,000 pay raise. Why do you disagree? Why do you not want it in there? 

GOLDEN: I’ve opposed this since I came to Congress six years ago. Yeah, I’ve been the sponsor or co-sponsor of the amendment that they stripped out that blocks and prevents this from happening in the first place, almost every time that we’ve had a budget while I’ve been in Congress. And that’s a bipartisan provision usually, Jake. But I think I have like three points that, you know, I want to make: First of all, this job is about public service, not about getting paid or how much you get paid. We should be thinking: What can we do as a Congress to raise the wages of the American people? We should be trying to pass legislation to lower health care premiums. Not the opposite of what this bill does, which is using taxpayer dollars to raise our wages and setting ourselves up with a better, more generous health care package. Almost every member of Congress, with their individual salary of $174,000, is near the median household income – household income – of their district. More than half of the Congress, with just their single salary, is sitting around the top 20 percent of household income in their district. That’s sitting quite pretty, as far as I’m concerned. I think Marie’s absolutely right, that most families would almost do anything. You know? They want that kind of salary and would think that, of course, they could live quite comfortably on that. I can’t think of anything, at this point in time, or many things, that would be more unpopular than this. I told one reporter today, I honestly think it would be more acceptable to the American people if we hit them in the big toe with a hammer then take a vote to raise our own pay when we have about a 20 percent approval rating.

TAPPER: Yeah. What are you hearing from your fellow Members of Congress? I mean, this can’t be popular among your colleagues. I know that’s not why you two, specifically, even ran for Congress – to be popular with other Members of Congress. But are they pushing back? Are they saying, what are you doing? 

GLUESENKAMP PEREZ: People make the argument that, you know, if you don’t raise the pay then good people won’t run for office. I think that’s not correct at all. I think that this job is about serving our communities. It’s, you know, it’s about representing our communities and the experience of our communities. You know? And I think that vastly underestimates the patriotism and capacity and quality of thinking that’s out there. If you want to get rich, go into the private sector. I don’t know. 

TAPPER: And have you been getting pushback from any of your fellow Democrats about, you know – ‘You’re trying to stand in the way of me getting a raise, and I need the money. And if you don’t, if you don’t raise, if you don’t vote to allow this to happen, it’s only going to be millionaires that can afford to be in Congress.’ I mean, I’m sure you’ve heard that argument.

GOLDEN: Yeah, well, I’m in Congress and I’m nowhere near being a millionaire. So, like Marie, said: Look, we came here to do public service. I think my colleagues did, too. I just don’t agree with them that this is necessary or deserved.

TAPPER: And what kind of feedback are you getting from Democratic leaders, from Hakeem Jeffries and the others?

GLUESENKAMP PEREZ: I haven’t spoken with Hakeem about this. For me, this is about representing the values and priorities of my community. And so that’s where I take my cues. That’s my baseline. 

TAPPER: All right. Congresswoman Gluesenkamp Perez and Congressman Golden from Maine and Washington state, two of the most interesting Members of Congress, that we have today. Thanks so much for being here. Really appreciate it.”