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By Moira Warburton
WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) - Lawmakers in the U.S.
Congress should have their pay frozen until the fight over
whether to increase the country's debt ceiling is resolved,
Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger said in a letter on
Friday.
"If the American people and the American economy are
suffering as a result of congressional inaction, then members of
Congress should not be rewarded with their pay," Spanberger, 43,
wrote in a letter to Congress's chief administrative officer.
Talks on raising the government's $31.4 trillion debt
ceiling to avoid a catastrophic default were ongoing, but a gap
remains between President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies in
Congress, and Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate.
It is not clear how the congressional administration would
block pay, but Spanberger's call is illustrative of a growing
frustration within Congress at the gridlock.
The Treasury Department says it could run out of money by
June 1 if lawmakers fail to lift the amount of debt the country
is legally allowed to take on, a result that would throw stock
markets around the world into chaos, as the United States'
reliability as a debt payer is a foundational assumption of the
global economy.
Republicans insist on drastic spending cuts in exchange for
raising the debt ceiling, while Democrats for months have
refused to budge from their position that the debt ceiling is
not an appropriate vehicle to make budget changes.
"Hyper-partisanship in Congress is jeopardizing the economic
strength and security of our country," Spanberger said in her
letter.
Biden and the 'big four' - the top two Republicans and
Democrats in Congress - were supposed to meet on Friday, but the
meeting was postponed as negotiations between staff were
expected to continue into at least early next week.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington
Editing by Alistair Bell)
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