Congressional Pay Raises

The Constitution's most recently ratified amendment, and its strangest ratification story: it was proposed by Congress all the way back in 1789 alongside the Bill of Rights, but sat dormant for over 200 years until a wave of state ratifications — reportedly kicked off by a college student's research paper — finally pushed it over the three-fourths threshold in 1992. It simply says a pay raise Congress votes itself can't take effect until after the next House election.