“no law, varying the compensation for the services of the senators and representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened”
(1992)
(although it was proposed in 1789)
(any law that changes the salary of congressmen takes effect in the next set of terms of office for representatives)
The Twenty-seventh Amendment (Amendment XXVII) to the United States Constitution prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of Congress from taking effect until the start of the next set of terms of office for Representatives. It is the most recent amendment to be adopted, but one of the first proposed.
It was submitted by Congress to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789, along with eleven other proposed amendments. While ten of these twelve proposals were ratified in 1791 to become the Bill of Rights, what would become the Twenty-seventh Amendment and the proposed Congressional Apportionment Amendment did not get ratified by enough states for them to also come into force with the first ten amendments. The proposed congressional pay amendment was largely forgotten until 1982 when gregory watson researched it as a student at the University of Texas at Austin and began a new campaign for its ratification.
(the amendment eventually became part of the united states constitution on 7 may 1992, completing a record-setting ratification period of 202 years, 7 months, and 12 days)