Senator JOHN KENNEDY (courtesy of John Kennedy/Facebook)
On this, the record-extending 37th day of the federal government shutdown, Senator John Kennedy is introducing two bills that would withhold lawmakers’ pay during future shutdowns. In a floor speech, Kennedy says it’s only fair that lawmakers feel the same financial pain that they’re putting workers through.
“None of our staffs are being paid. No federal employees are being paid. Our military is only being paid partially. Our air traffic controllers are not being paid,” Kennedy said.
The difference between the two bills is that one of them calls for lawmakers to forfeit any missed pay, while the other calls for any skipped paychecks to be escrowed and paid when the shutdown ends. Kennedy says he’s introducing the latter just in case the former runs into constitutional issues.
“Some may say, ‘Well, this violates to 27th Amendment.’ I don’t think it does. That’s why I’m offering two different flavors of bills,” Kennedy explained.
The 27th Amendment states that when lawmakers change their pay, the change does not take effect until the next congress is sworn in. Kennedy says there is precedent for his bill, saying President Obama did the same thing in 2013.
“They were in a shutdown and President Obama supported legislation that said, ‘If you don’t open up government by this certain date, then you’re going to lose your paychecks,'” Kennedy noted.
Kennedy says at that point, lawmakers got down to business, reached a deal and reopened government – and that’s what his bills are designed to do.
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