To that end, I cosponsored H.R. 2365, the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act.  Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-04) introduced this bipartisan legislation which puts in place a more accurate formula to ensure senior’s actual costs are considered when determining the need for a COLA. Seniors need a pricing index that takes into account the unique goods and services they purchase, such as healthcare and prescription drugs, and H.R. 2365 does just that.

Additionally, I cosponsored a similar piece of legislation, H.R. 3691, The Seniors and Veterans Economic Stimulus (SAVES) Act of 2009, which proposes to use all unobligated funds from the economic stimulus package to provide seniors and veterans with the assistance they need. President Obama and his administration must recognize that our seniors and veterans need immediate relief and cannot afford to shoulder the burden of our struggling economy without a COLA increase from the federal government.

Many of you have pointed to the Congressional pay raises as an example of how out of touch those in Washington are with the people they represent. I could not agree more. As a freshman member of Congress I was appalled to learn that an automatic pay increase is included in the annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government. Members of Congress should not be awarded an automatic pay raise, especially when hard-working American families are suffering from record unemployment and a COLA increase is determined to be unnecessary. Those of us in Congress must make the same sacrifices that we ask of our constituents and should not even consider a pay raise until the federal deficit is addressed.