• Members of Congress may get a raise of up to $6,600 this year.
• That’s because of a provision in a funding bill that has yet to be passed and is scheduled to be voted on this week.
• Rank-and-file lawmakers have earned $174,000 since 2009.

For the first time since 2009, members of Congress may be in line for a pay raise.

Under a provision in a new bill to fund the government through March 14, lawmakers would receive a cost-of-living adjustment on their salaries – something Congress has blocked every year for a decade and a half.

That could result in a raise of up to $6,600 for rank-and-file members of Congress next year, according to a recent report from the Congressional Research Service.

Currently, most members of the House and Senate earn $174,000 each year. Some congressional leaders earn more than that, such as House Speaker Mike Johnson, who earns an annual salary of $223,500.

Although this amount of $174,000 is well above the average household income, it has not kept pace with inflation, and lawmakers from both parties have argued that this amount is not enough to keep up with the demands and responsibilities of the job, which can also include the maintenance of two apartments.

“If we want working-class people who don’t rely on independent wealth to represent people in Congress, we have to make it work,” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York told Business earlier this year Insider.

“There are a number of members of Congress who sleep in their offices,” Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah told BI earlier this year. “These days it makes sense to have people who feel like they can serve and still be able to sleep at home at night.”

Had Congress not blocked annual cost-of-living adjustments since 2009, rank-and-file lawmakers would be earning $217,900 this year, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Earlier this year, a group of current and former lawmakers filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to reclaim money they would have earned if they said their wages had not been “unconstitutionally reduced.”

Increasing MPs’ salaries has long been politically unpopular, and the inclusion of the provision is already generating some resistance from politically weaker members.

Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat who represents a GOP-leaning district in Maine, said in a statement Wednesday that he would not vote for the state funding bill unless a wage freeze was reinstated.

“Congressmen make more than 90 percent of Americans,” Golden said. “If one of my colleagues can’t afford to live on this income, they should look for another career.”

If Congress doesn’t pass the bill by Friday, the federal government will shut down due to a lack of funding.