In unanimous agreement Thursday, the U.S. Senate decided that if the government stops working, their paychecks should too. The resolution, championed by Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, ensures that federal closures will finally hit lawmakers where it actually hurts: their own bank accounts.
The resolution passed with zero “nays.”
The move follows a particularly messy year defined by record-breaking stalemates that saw federal agencies shuttered for weeks on end. Under the new rules, the Secretary of the Senate will now withhold pay for every senator as soon as a shutdown kicks in.
The money won’t be gone forever—it’ll be released once the lights are back on—but the temporary freeze is intended to provide a much-needed incentive to keep the doors open.
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“Shutting down government should not be our default solution to our refusal to work out our issues and our differences,” said Senator John Kennedy, the Louisiana Republican who sponsored the bill. Kennedy, known for his colorful analogies, didn’t hold back during a floor speech Wednesday, stating plainly, “This is about putting our money where our mouth is.”
While the measure is a step toward “shared sacrifice,” it doesn’t kick in immediately. The new rules are scheduled to take effect the day after the Nov. 3 general election.
The urgency behind the resolution stems from two brutal shutdowns within the last twelve months. One partial shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security lasted a grueling 76 days, while an earlier 43-day total government closure broke previous records for longevity.
During those periods, tens of thousands of federal workers were forced to miss paychecks, even as the Constitution guaranteed that lawmakers continued to receive their salaries.
Previously, Senator Lindsey Graham had suggested a full constitutional amendment to force lawmakers to forfeit pay entirely during lapses, arguing it was the only “constitutionally sound” approach. However, with the labor-intensive requirement of needing three-quarters of the states to ratify an amendment, the Senate opted for this more direct resolution instead.
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“If members of Congress had to forfeit their pay during government shutdowns, there would be fewer shutdowns and they would end quicker,” Graham noted during the earlier debates.
Notably, the resolution only applies to the Senate. When asked why the House of Representatives wasn’t included in the pay-freeze pact, Kennedy opted for a hands-off approach.
“The House’s business is the House’s business,” he told reporters, though he couldn’t help but comment on the current state of inter-chamber relations.
“There’s a very strong undercurrent of animosity among some of my friends in the House,” Kennedy said, adding that the bickering between the two bodies is “quickly becoming like two kids fighting in the back of a minivan.” For now, at least one group of “kids” has agreed to lose their allowance the next time they can’t get along.
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