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Senators will now go without pay during future government shutdowns, but for many, they don’t need the paycheck.
The Senate unanimously agreed to forgo their paychecks during future shutdowns, with the money being withheld until a deal is struck to reopen the government. But much of the upper chamber is populated with lawmakers who are already wealthy before their time in office.
“There are some members who are very independently wealthy that their congressional paycheck is a rounding error to their investments,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital. “Fine, I’m not pejorative of that at all. But we need to actually end government shutdowns.”
SENATORS AGREE TO GO WITHOUT PAY DURING SHUTDOWNS AFTER HISTORIC CLOSURES LEFT WORKERS UNPAID
A sign at the entrance of the U.S. Capitol Visiting Center states it is closed due to a lapse in appropriations after the government shut down. (Probal Rashid/LightRocket)
In the last year, Congress has been unable to keep the government open twice. The first time for 43 days, and the most recent for 76 days.
Republicans worry that before the midterm elections, and before the rule change becomes official, that Senate Democrats may again try to shutter the government to gain a political edge. They hope that the rule change, pushed by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., is at least enough to convince some lawmakers not to do it.
However, nearly three-quarters of the Senate are millionaires, according to an analysis of financial disclosure data reviewed by Fox News Digital and first reported by NOTUS, meaning the fear of missing a paycheck may not be enough to quell the desire to score political points.
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Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., pushed the resolution to dock senators’ pay. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It certainly doesn’t stop future shutdowns,” Lankford said. “It just says, ‘Hey, people are not being paid, we’re not being paid either.’”
Others were more optimistic that by installing the new guardrails on themselves, it could open the door to future legislation that may take shutdowns off the table entirely — like Lankford’s bill that would automatically extend government funding on a temporary, two-week basis if lawmakers miss the mark.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who is one of the wealthier members of the Senate, believed that the success of Kennedy’s resolution could open the valve to his legislation that would dock members’ pay during shutdowns.
“It’s about brick by brick, rebuilding confidence in the institution,” Moreno told Fox News Digital.
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Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaks to reporters as he arrives for a vote at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 23, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc./Getty Images)
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., another of the Senate’s wealthiest members, contended that lawmakers shouldn’t hold federal workers “hostage based on what we’re doing.”
Over the past several months, hundreds of thousands of federal employees went without pay. And in the case of workers under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), they went without paychecks twice.
“Hopefully it’ll get people to focus on getting [appropriations] done, because, you know, we don’t have a process to get this stuff done,” Scott told Fox News Digital.
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Meanwhile, Kennedy, who successfully pushed Senate Republican leadership to put the bill on the floor, viewed its success as progress.
But it’s not as far as he wanted to go.
“Look, if I were king for a day, I would pass a bill that doesn’t suspend member pay, it forfeits member pay during a shutdown,” Kennedy told Fox News Digital. “And I will also include in the bill a prohibition against members leaving Washington while we’re in a shutdown. But I don’t have the votes to do that. So I’m doing as much as I can.”
