Ami Bera Sequesters His Own Pay, Donates to Meals on Wheels

Rep. Ami Bera (D-Elk Grove) has a message for his fellow members of Congress: don't ask others to cut back without cutting back in your own home.

Bera on Tuesday signed over 8.2 percent of his monthly pay–the same amount most federal agencies are being cut during sequestration–to the Meals on Wheels by Asian Community Center, a program that serves food to seniors across Sacramento County.

"The men and women of Congress have to understand the impact of the decisions they're making," Bera said.

The newly elected representative handed over a $1,189 check at the Senior Center of Elk Grove, where the Meals on Wheels program serves lunch for a $2 donation fives times a week.

Meals on Wheels Program Director David Morikawa said the organization gets 85 percent of its funding from the federal government, and could lose 5 percent of that funding because of sequestration.

"It doesn't sound like a lot to some people, but it's a tremendous cost," Morikawa said. "A 5 percent cut in our program is a very difficult situation for us to overcome."

Still, he emphasized the 1,200 seniors who are fed by Meals on Wheels won't go hungry any time soon. The program will still continue as-is, even as sequestration cuts loom.

Bera, who helped introduce legislation to formally sequester the pay of members of Congress, said he hopes more legislators volunteer to donate money. He said he'll only give to groups hit by sequestration cuts, and will continue to do so each month as long as the cuts continue.

He also said he's hopeful a bipartisan deal can be reached to end the across-the-board cuts, and bring more cooperation to Congress.

"What we have to do is stop going from one crisis to the next crisis," Bera said. "We have to get rid of the politics that say, 'If I can't win, I'm going to make you lose.' "

--

What do you think of this gesture by Rep. Ami Bera? Tell us in the comments section below.