Alas, it’s a congressional rule, conveniently ignored when expedient or misdirection is necessary. They legislate in the manner of playing tennis with the net down.
Their “base pay” is around $80,000 for a part time job - usually beginning in January and ending sometime toward the end of June. Those with juice get plum committee assignments, called lulus, which sweeten the pot with generous five figure add-ons. Then there’s the $185 per diem whether they are actually legislating or just sitting around waiting for some action - and I challenge you to define “action.” sd