Education, health care, the war on terror, the national debt - to mention a few.

“We need to be willing to make sacrifices,” Matheson said in a floor speech. “We need to behave like American families who make tough choices every day. We need to budget, live within our means and make careful spending decisions based on our most pressing priorities.”

Matheson, who has argued against every congressional pay raise since winning his first term in 2000, garnered 151 votes, plus his own, in a procedural move to get an up-or-down vote on the pay raise. But it wasn't enough support for dumping the automatic congressional raise in a spending bill for several U.S. departments, the judiciary and the District of Columbia.

Members of Congress make $162,100 a year, and will make about 1.9 percent more, or $165,200.

As he has done in the past, Matheson plans to donate the raise to charity, including Boys and Girls clubs, a reading program and a shelter for abused women. Last year, the congressman donated several thousand dollars to charity.

Utah's lone Democrat in Congress doesn't donate the cumulative amount of raises from his five years, only the current year's raise. That means he actually takes a pay raise every year; he just waits 365 days to claim it.

Matheson urged the House to vote against a parliamentary procedure that would prevent him from offering an amendment to junk the congressional pay raise, but he lost in a 263-152 vote. Utah Republican Reps. Rob Bishop and Chris Cannon voted with the majority.

tburr@sltrib.com