Lawsuit could give members of Congress millions of your money along with a five-figure raise

WASHINGTON — Federal lawmakers could receive thousands in back pay — and a substantial salary increase — if a long-running lawsuit is decided in their favor, putting taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars. A group of current and former members of Congress won a major victory last month when a federal court ruled their case to boost congressional pay could go forward. The plaintiffs charge that when Congress repeatedly canceled cost-of-living adjustments in their salary by voting to repeal a 1989 law meant to keep member salaries apace with inflation, it violated the 27th Amendment.If the judiciary agrees, taxpayers will have to pay at least $69 million to make lawmakers whole, according to an estimate by the National Taxpayers Union.Publicly sensitive to being seen as self-dealing, legislators have kept their annual pay fixed at $174,000 for nearly two decades.

But behind the scenes, there have been grumbles about the stagnant salaries.“Seventeen years, I have gotten people from my side and people from the other side saying, ‘Can’t we fix this?’” Rep.Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a former House majority leader and one of the plaintiffs in the case, said at an appropriations hearing last month.“Our goal is to stop the continual violations of the Constitution as it relates to Congressional pay,” Ken Cuccinelli, the attorney for the suing lawmakers, told The Post in an email. “As a policy matter, I would note that Congressional pay on an inflation-adjusted basis is the lowest it has been since 1954.”Cuccinell — a Republican former Virginia attorney general and acting deputy Homeland Security secretary during President Trump’s first term — put together a class action lawsuit with Hoyer and fellow Reps.

Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) and James Clyburn (D-SC) acting as plaintiffs along with former Reps.Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) and Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo).The exact number of current and former members who could receive back pay remains uncertain and i...