Convenes on Jan 5th, goes on PAID vacations starting Jan 10
Jan 10-Jan 21 (vacation)
Feb 21-Feb 25 (vacation)
Mar 21-Mar 25 (vacation)
Apr 18-Apr 29 (vacation)
May 30-Jun 3 (vacation)
Jul 4-Jul 8 (vacation)
Aug 8-Sep 5 (vacation)
Sep 26-Sep 30 (vacation)
Oct 10 (vacation)
Oct 24-Oct 28 (vacation)
Nov 11 (vacation)
Senate adjourns Dec 21 (vacation)
A similar schedule exists for Congress –
Now check out their salary!
- Basic Senators (no leadership position) – $174,000
- Majority and Minority Leaders – $193,400
- President Pro Tempore – $223,500
- Vice President (President of the Senate) – $230,700
Allowances –
When asking the question how much does a senator make, it is important to consider allowances provided for various expenses. The amount a senator receive for any given type of allowance may vary and can depend on factors such as the size of the state that the Senator represents. Some of the most common allowances allowed to senators are:
Personal Staff Allowance – This allowance allows senators to hire staff to assist with clerical or other needs, both in Washington and in their district office. The number of employees hired can range anywhere from 26 to 60, with maximum pay per employee topping out at $156,848 as of 2005. Up to $75,000 of this allowance can be transferred to supplement the expense allowance.
Expense Allowance – The expense allowance covers job related expenses such as stationary, business cards, newsletters, domestic travel and lodging, and communication expenses. This allowance varies and is based on population and distance of the state represented.
Franking Privilege – This privilege allows senators to send mail free from postage so long as it is interacting with the recipient in the context of being a citizen of the United States.
Foreign Travel – Foreign travel expenses are covered in this allowance, which also includes free use of any military air craft.
Retirement –
A Senator qualifies for retirement if they have served 5 years. Retirement doesn’t begin until they reach age 50. if they serve 25 years they can retire at any age. Max retirement is 80% of their last year’s salary. They also qualify for Social Security benefits.
Well, I’ll add my chime — NO MORE FREE LUNCH!
Our city council gets stuff too. Councilors make a basic pay around $6,000, your mayor makes about $9,000. That is just enough to pay for Ann’s condo on Vallombrosa, which makes it legal for her to live in Forest Ranch but still be our mayor.
And they all get health insurance – Ann’s policy runs around $17,000 a year.
Then there’s $taff. Ann uses a couple of $taffers like personal secretaries. These people’s jobs would not exist if not for things like the Sustainability Task Force and the Diversity Action Plan. These $taffers make in excess of $80,000 a year, which is damned fine pay around here, especially given their duties (like e-mailing around to try to get a quorum to show up at the meeting!) And then they get benefits and retirement.
Christmas is over and it’s time to ring in a new fiscal year around here – we need to get rid of some of these public salaries. Fire them, and decrease the surplus population. They’ll get really nice unemployment benefits, don’t worry, and I guessing, most of them will get jobs when the private sector recovers. And I hope, some of them will move out of Chico and back to the Poputropolous they moved here from.
Excellent ideas Juanita – in fact they are too reasonable to ever be approved by the liberals in city government.
A fish rots from the head.
All that vacation time! You’d think they were French!!!
Since they obviously have little desire to balance budgets and manage our money with care we should give them a permanent vacation!
Article I of the Constitution: “The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first day in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.”
Prior to the start of the 20th century Congress met for less than six months and until 1855 only received a per-diem for their service…no fixed salary!
The 20th amendment in 1933 specified that Congress was required to assemble at least once a year: “such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3rd day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.”
Find the length of days for each Congress here:
http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/session_dates/1to19.aspx