{"id":71288,"date":"2026-05-14T17:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/71288\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T17:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:34:08","slug":"senators-vote-to-dock-their-own-pay-during-future-shutdowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/71288\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators vote to dock their own pay during future shutdowns\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senators will no longer be paid during future government shutdowns<\/a> after unanimously approving a resolution precipitated by two record-breaking<\/a> lapses in federal funding.<\/p>\n

In a show of bipartisan support, the Senate adopted the measure Thursday by voice vote. A day earlier, it advanced 99-0 and had the public backing<\/a> of Senate Majority Leader John Thune <\/a>(R-SD) and his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chuck Schumer <\/a>(D-NY).<\/p>\n

Passage of the measure marked a rare break from the partisan gridlock that has defined much of President Donald Trump\u2019s <\/a>second term in office. Republicans are still in the process of reopening the Department of Homeland Security<\/a>, which shuttered more than two months ago over Democratic opposition to the agency\u2019s aggressive immigration<\/a> enforcement tactics.<\/p>\n

An even larger swath of government was closed for 43 days last fall due to a separate dispute with Democrats over Obamacare subsidies.<\/p>\n

The measure, sponsored by Sen. John Kennedy <\/a>(R-LA), is designed to address the political optics of lawmakers receiving paychecks as other federal employees, sometimes including their own staff, go without pay. The circumstance is due to both a quirk in the Constitution and a permanent allocation for lawmakers\u2019 salaries dating back to 1983.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ought to hide our heads in a bag,\u201d Kennedy said in a Wednesday floor speech. \u201cIt\u2019s got to stop. Shutting down government should not be our default solution to our refusal to work out our issues and our differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislation is also premised on the hope that withholding senators\u2019 salaries will decrease the chances of future shutdowns. Senators would still get paid, but their paychecks would be held in an escrow account until the government reopens.<\/p>\n

The change does not take effect until November, a decision meant to comply with the 27th Amendment\u2019s prohibition on changes in lawmaker salary before the next election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about shared sacrifice,\u201d Kennedy added. \u201cThis is about putting our money where our mouth is.\u201d<\/p>\n

MICHIGAN\u2019S OUTGOING SENATOR WARNS DEMOCRATS AGAINST UGLY SUCCESSION RACE<\/a><\/p>\n

The House is not bound by the resolution, though companion legislation has been introduced there, too, and Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> (R-LA) previously told the Washington Examiner that he\u2019ll \u201csee what consensus we can build on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senate vote came after months of Kennedy pressuring GOP leadership, and Thune eventually agreed as part of negotiations over DHS funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senators will no longer be paid during future government shutdowns after unanimously approving a resolution precipitated by two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[477,1080,1739,475,479],"class_list":{"0":"post-71288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-john-thune","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-government-shutdown","10":"tag-john-kennedy","11":"tag-john-thune","12":"tag-washington-d-c"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116574136753044065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}