Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Minn., introduced legislation to freeze lawmakers' pay during future shutdowns. Charles Dharapak/AP file photo
Congress Should Not Get Paid During a Government Shutdown, Says Lawmaker
Bill would prevent future legislative bodies from receiving salaries during a government closure.
A House lawmaker wants to make sure Congress doesn’t get paid during a government shutdown.
Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Minn., on Friday introduced legislation that would prevent future Congresses from receiving their salaries during a government shutdown. The 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits a sitting Congress from increasing or decreasing its own pay, although it can change the pay of future legislative bodies.
The bill, which Nolan also introduced in October 2013 during the last government shutdown, might be cold comfort to federal employees who will be furloughed if the government shutters next week. Congress so far has been unable to agree on funding agencies as fiscal 2016 approaches, and Washington is preparing for another possible closure beginning on Oct. 1.
Federal workers do not get paid during a government shutdown. Employees who are not furloughed receive pay for their work during the closure after the government reopens. Furloughed employees receive pay for the time the government is shut down if Congress allows it. Congress always has voted to give furloughed federal workers back pay after a shutdown.
The bill would require lawmakers in future Congresses to work full time during a government shutdown without pay. “The working men and women of America don’t get paid when they don’t come to work,” Nolan said on the House floor on Sept. 18. “Why should the Congress get paid?”
Rank-and-file lawmakers earn $174,000 per year. Congress has frozen its salaries for the last six years, and is on track to approve another freeze for fiscal 2016.
Congress passed in 2013 the No Budget No Pay Act (H.R. 325) which authorized a temporary suspension of the then-debt limit of $16.4 trillion through May 18, 2013, allowing the government to continue borrowing to pay its bills until then. A provision in the legislation prohibited lawmakers from getting paid if Congress failed to pass a budget by April 15 (they passed a budget before the deadline).
“People in this country do not want a shutdown, they want to see the Congress go to work,” said Nolan. “Find common ground, fix things, get things done.”