finance
Senate Passes Resolution to Withhold Lawmakers’ Pay During Future Government Shutdowns
Senators voted Thursday to withhold their own salaries whenever a government shutdown occurs, with the measure taking effect after the Nov. 3 general election. Sponsored by Sen. John Kennedy, the resolution aims to create shared sacrifice after two record-length shutdowns in the past year that left federal workers unpaid. The Constitution requires that lawmakers receive their salaries.
May 14, 12:51 PM·2m read1 source
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Senators unanimously approved a resolution Thursday to withhold their pay during government shutdowns. The measure, sponsored by Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican, directs the secretary of the Senate to withhold senators’ pay whenever a government shutdown affects one or more agencies.
Withheld pay would be released once funding is restored. The resolution will take effect the day after the Nov. 3 general election. “Shutting down government should not be our default solution to our refusal to work out our issues and our differences,” Kennedy said in a floor speech Wednesday.
Two shutdowns in the past year created significant financial hardship for tens of thousands of federal workers, particularly at the Department of Homeland Security. The department reopened last month after a 76-day partial shutdown, the longest agency funding lapse in history.
That shutdown came just a few months after a 43-day lapse of the entire federal government, which was the longest such closure on record.
The Constitution stipulates that lawmakers must be paid. Lawmakers have received salaries during shutdowns even as federal workers went without paychecks. When the full government shutdown began in October amid a dispute over health care subsidies, Sen.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, proposed a constitutional amendment to require members to forfeit their paychecks when the government is closed. “If members of Congress had to forfeit their pay during government shutdowns, there would be fewer shutdowns and they would end quicker,” Graham said at the time.
