Senators Unanimously Agree to Go Without Pay During Future Government Shutdowns

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Senators unanimously approved a resolution Thursday to go without pay during future government shutdowns.

This move, which received bipartisan support, is designed to deter future shutdowns by incentivizing lawmakers not to block or stall funding bills, particularly as important deadlines approach.

It’s a decision that comes amid a drastic increase in the quantity and frequency of shutdowns, with five in the last 13 years — four of those occurring under President Donald Trump‘s two administrations.

The latest partial shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security left TSA agents and other government employees without pay. It lasted for 76 days, ending on April 30.

Under this new resolution, which was adopted by voice vote and is set to go into effect after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, the secretary of the Senate would withhold Senators’ pay during shutdowns.

While the money would not be accessible to Senators during an active shutdown, it would be kept in an escrow account so that Senators would still receive their full salaries after the shutdown or shutdowns end.

“The resolution defines a shutdown as the lapse in funding for one or more federal agencies or departments — which means a partial government shutdown, such as Congress’s failure to fund the Department of Homeland Security for 76 days earlier this year, would result in senators not getting paid for weeks on end,” The Hill wrote in an explanation of the resolution’s terms.

“Shutting down government should not be our default solution to our refusal to work out our issues and our differences,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who sponsored the bill, said in a speech on Wednesday.

The Hill reported that Kennedy also expressed his concern his “Senate colleagues on the Democratic side are going to try to shut down government yet again right before the elections to try to create chaos to affect the midterm elections.”

When asked why the resolution does not also extend to the House, Kennedy told AP reporters that “the House’s business is the House’s business.”

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