It's a longshot at best, requiring comity that's in short supply in a Capitol riven with partisanship.

More than two-thirds of House members have never gotten a pay raise as Congress has voted each year since 2009 to reject an annual cost-of-living adjustment that's due them under a 30-year-old reform measure. The optics for Democrats of restoring the COLA after GOP leaders killed it each year for eight years running are difficult.

And President Donald Trump, feuding with Democratic lawmakers, could crush any effort to revive the pay raise by attacking Congress with a single tweet.

Still, housing costs in the Washington area are skyrocketing — most lawmakers maintain two homes — and the annual salary of $174,000 doesn't go so far in the face of 10 years of inflation, not to speak of soaring college tuition and other costs. Concern is rising that some members are struggling to keep up.