The following was written by COS Regional Captain James Peters. This was originally published in The Daily News-Record.
When our nation was first founded and the representatives and Senators of our original 13 states met to create the laws under which our citizens would live, those men left their businesses and farms to work through the problems that faced our nation at that time.
To compensate them for their time away from their occupations and families — from 1789 to 1815 — they were paid $6 per diem.
In 1789 that $6 had the equivalent purchasing power of about $206.84 today.
Per diem, a Latin term that translates to “by the day,” refers to that daily allowance to cover business expenses.
What businessman or farmer do you know who would leave their homes to work in D.C. for $206.84 a day?
Being a Senator or Congressman was a sacrifice, not a way to become a millionaire.
The $6 per-day rate remained the same until the Compensation Act of 1816 raised it to $1,500 a year.
However, faced with public outrage, Congress repealed the law in 1817.
Not until 1855 did members of Congress return to being paid an annual salary, then $3,000 per year with no benefits.
Today members of Congress have a starting yearly salary of $174,000.
They are also provided with an annual allowance intended to defray expenses related to carrying out their congressional duties, including "official office expenses, staff, mail, travel between a member’s district or state and Washington, DC, and other goods and services."
For Congress, those allowances average around $1,300,000 per year, for Senators about $3,000,000 per year.
The number of millionaires in Congress is hard to pinpoint precisely because they disclose their finances in ranges.
But the Center for Responsive Politics data showed that about 48% were worth at least $1 million.
A Facebook post said 50% of the members of Congress are millionaires compared with only 1% of the American public as a whole.
In Virginia, our delegates receive an annual salary of $17,640 and our senators $18,000.
That averages to about $209 per diem, about $2.16 more per day than Congress was paid — in terms of purchasing power — in 1789.
No one in our state legislature is going to become a millionaire on that pay.
These dedicated men and women come to Richmond to handle the business of our commonwealth and then go home to their families and businesses.
Many of them have done a great job of taking care of our state and could represent us well in Washington, D.C. if those in D.C. were only allowed to serve a limited number of terms in office.
Think of the federal officials who have made what should have been a short-term sacrifice into a lifelong quest for riches.
U.S. Senators and Congressmen also receive millions of dollars for their election campaigns from those who seek special favors in federal legislation.
Lobbyists want “their people” to be in office as long as possible to get those favors and will pay millions, if not billions, of dollars to make it happen.
Most of our dedicated Republican, Democrat and Independent state legislators will never get the opportunity to serve us in a federal office because those seeking riches want those jobs as long as possible.
Here is just one example: “Senator Dianne Feinstein returned to the Capitol on Wednesday to cast her first vote in the Senate since taking an extended illness-related absence," the Washington Post reported.
"Feinstein, who at 89 is the eldest sitting senator, was brought onto the Senate floor in a wheelchair that she may sometimes require to travel around the Capitol as she works 'a lighter schedule,' her office said in a statement," an L.A. Times report said.
This clearly didn’t bother the voters of California, who elected Feinstein to another six-year term in 2018. She will be in her early 90s if she completes this term.
If Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley decides to run again next November, he would be heavily favored to win a term that wouldn’t end until he was 95 years old.
Exactly 50 of the 100 senators are at least 65 years old, with 21 senators between 70 and 80.
There are more Senate Republicans than Democrats who are 65 years or older, but in the House, nearly twice as many Democratic members are at least 65 years old.
The 117th Congress — House and Senate — is the oldest, on average, of any Congress in two decades.
Sadly, many federal officials came into office with high ideals for what they could do for their constituents, but after being wined and dined by special interests in D.C. are now there just for what they can accumulate for themselves and their extended families.
An Article V Convention of States could send those politicians back to their home states and open those jobs for others to really serve us. Sign the COS petition at conventionofstates.com.
