Free Republic

The maximum pay rate for staffers will be higher than that of elected officials House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday announced a major pay boost for top House staff members that will allow them to make more money than elected members of Congress. Pelosi, D-Calif., said the new maximum pay rate for staff will be $199,300, up 15% from the current cap of $173,900 annually. The pay boost means that top staffers will be allowed to make more money than their bosses. The pay for a member of Congress has been $174,000 since 2009 with some variance for leadership positions....

The House Budget Committee filed the text of the new Ryan-Murray budget deal before midnight on Tuesday and the Rules Committee announced an emergency meeting at 2 p.m. on Wednesday to prepare a House floor vote on the package. The text of the $85 billion deal is here. [77 page PDF] The deal sets spending levels for 2014 and 2015, allowing appropriators to create a fully detailed omnibus spending package before the government shutdown deadline of Jan. 15. The spending panel will also now have the chance to do all 12 individual appropriations bills for 2015 before the Oct. 1...

...During the pre-Easter Republican meltdown on Capitol Hill, when the party's leadership in both the Senate and House was repudiated on several issues, nothing was more embarrassing than the House failure to pass a budget bill. Everything was in place to pass budget reforms. But Lewis, the powerful chairman of the Appropriations Committee, pulled the plug. ... On April 6, before the House recessed, a budget containing spending reforms was agreed to by the new majority leader, John Boehner, and Rep. Mike Pence, head of the conservative Republican Study Committee. What's more, Rep. Mike Castle, leader of the House moderates,...