support for the measure<\/a> comes as shutdowns and federal closures have grown in frequency and length over the last year, with lawmakers growing frustrated and pushing for punishment when Congress fails to advance legislation. <\/p>\nSenate unanimously backs plan to withhold senators’ pay during future shutdowns (SENATE TV via CNN Newsource)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
With the resolution, senators’ pay will be withheld by the Secretary of the Senate whenever a shutdown impacts one or more agencies. The pay will be released once funding is restored. <\/p>\n
The resolution takes effect the day after the November 3 general election. It does not apply to the House. <\/p>\n
In a floor speech on Wednesday, Senator John Kennedy, R-La., said shutting down the government should not be the default solution to “our refusal to work out our issues and our differences.”<\/p>\n
Kennedy described the resolution as “putting our money where our mouth is.”<\/p>\n
The senator said he pushed his measure to create a “shared sacrifice” during shutdowns and that it doesn’t go as far as he likes, but said it was a start.<\/p>\n
In the last year, two separate shutdowns have impacted thousands of federal workers, with the latest impacting the Department of Homeland Security. DHS reopened in April after the 76-day partial shutdown, which is the longest agency funding lapse in history. <\/p>\n
A few months before the DHS shutdown, there was a 43-day shutdown of the entire federal government, the longest on record. <\/p>\n
When the full federal government shutdown over healthcare subsidies began in October, Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., proposed a constitutional amendment requiring members to forfeit their paychecks when the government is closed. Right now, the lawmakers still do get paid while federal workers do not, the Constitution says. <\/p>\n
“If members of Congress had to forfeit their pay during government shutdowns, there would be fewer shutdowns and they would end quicker,” Graham said.<\/p>\n
Graham said his legislation was the most “constitutionally sound” way to address the issue, even though it may take longer, as three-fourths of states would have to ratify an amendment. <\/p>\n
During past shutdowns, different lawmakers have taken to social media to pledge to forgo their paychecks. Senators earn an annual salary of $174,000.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
The Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 Senators approved a resolution to withhold their pay during future government shutdowns on Thursday. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-316142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}