The US Senate on Thursday (May 14) unanimously approved a resolution to withhold senators’ pay during government shutdowns, a rare bipartisan effort to impose financial consequences on lawmakers when Congress fails to pass funding bills.
The measure comes after a series of extended federal shutdowns over the past year have disrupted government operations and left thousands of federal workers without pay.
Under the resolution, senators’ salaries would be withheld by the Secretary of the Senate whenever the shutdown affected one or more federal agencies. Withheld wages will only be released once government funding is restored.
People also ask
Artificial intelligence reinforced the insights from this story
•5 QUESTIONS
The US Senate unanimously approved a resolution to withhold senators’ salaries during government shutdowns. The measure means that senators’ salaries will be withheld by the Secretary of the Senate whenever the shutdown affects federal agencies, and will not be released until government funding is restored.
The new policy, which includes the withholding of senators’ salaries during government shutdowns, is expected to take effect the day after the Nov. 3 general election.
The resolution was introduced to impose financial consequences on lawmakers when Congress fails to pass funding bills. It aims to provide shared sacrifices during shutdowns and address the financial burden faced by federal employees.
No, the resolution only applies to senators and does not apply to members of the US House of Representatives. Senator John Kennedy suggested that inter-chamber tensions played a role in this exclusion.
Unlike a constitutional amendment that would have permanently lost the salary, Kennedy’s resolution avoids constitutional complications by delaying lawmakers’ salaries instead of eliminating them altogether. Amending the Constitution requires ratification by three-quarters of the US states.
The new policy is due to come into effect the day after the November 3 general election.
‘We put our money where our mouth is’
The resolution was introduced by John Kennedy, who argued that lawmakers should share the burden created by political heels in Washington.
“A government shutdown should not be our default solution to our refusal to resolve our problems and our differences,” Kennedy said during a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday.
“It’s about putting our money where our mouth is,” the Republican senator added.
Kennedy later told reporters that the proposal was intended to ensure “shared sacrifices” during shutdowns, although he acknowledged that the measure did not go as far as he personally would have preferred.
Shutdowns are getting longer and more frequent
The move follows two major government shutdowns in the past year that have put severe financial strain on federal employees, particularly those at the United States Department of Homeland Security.
The department reopened just last month after a 76-day partial shutdown — the longest agency funding blackout in U.S. history.
The shutdown came just months after a separate 43-day shutdown of the entire federal government, which also set a record at the time.
Lawmakers of both parties have increasingly faced criticism for allowing the shutdown to drag on while members of Congress continued to be paid.
The Constitution protects the salary of Congress
Under the U.S. Constitution, members of Congress must continue to receive compensation during shutdowns, unlike many federal workers who can be furloughed or temporarily without pay.
During an earlier full government shutdown over health care subsidy disputes, Senator Lindsey Graham proposed a constitutional amendment that would have required lawmakers to permanently lose pay during the shutdown period.
“If members of Congress had to lose their pay during government shutdowns, there would be fewer shutdowns and they would end faster,” Graham said at the time.
However, Graham acknowledged that amending the Constitution would be a difficult process because amendments require ratification by three-quarters of the US states.
By contrast, Kennedy’s resolution avoids constitutional complications by delaying lawmakers’ salaries rather than eliminating them altogether.
Read also | Oil stabilizes as Trump-Xi meet amid fresh Gulf attacks
Tensions between the Senate and the House are emerging
The resolution applies only to senators and does not apply to members of the US House of Representatives.
When asked why the House was excluded, Kennedy suggested that tensions between the two chambers played a role.
“House business is House business,” he said.
Kennedy also joked about the increasingly strained relationship between lawmakers in both chambers.
“There is a very strong undercurrent of hostility among some of my friends in the House,” he noted.
“It quickly becomes like two kids fighting in the back of a minivan,” Kennedy added.
Read also | Taiwan Says ‘No Surprises’ After Xi Jinping Warns Trump About Taiwan
