Senate unanimously advances resolution to suspend senators' pay during government shutdown

WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Senate on Wednesday unanimously voted to advance Sen. John Kennedy’s, R-La., resolution to suspend senators’ pay during a government shutdown.

The resolution would only apply to senators and does not require approval from the House of Representatives or President Trump’s signature, The Hill reported.

The Senate voted 99-0 on the motion to end debate on proceeding to the resolution, indicating that it will have enough support to pass the upper chamber.

According to the resolution, if Congress fails to fund federal agencies before their funding lapses, then senators wouldn’t get paid. A senator’s salary would be put in an escrow account, but would be unavailable to lawmakers during a government shutdown.

The measure would take effect after the midterm election, meaning that it would not apply to a possible government shutdown this fall, which Republicans believe is likely to happen.

The resolution’s advancement comes after the federal government was shut down for a record 43 days last fall because of a dispute over the expiration of Obamacare subsidies. Then last month, the Department of Homeland Security’s record 76-day shutdown ended after Democrats had refused to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol without reforms.

Kennedy said he wanted the resolution to be effective immediately because he’s “very concerned that my Senate colleagues on the Democratic side are going to try to shut down government yet again right before the elections to try to create chaos to affect the midterm elections.”

However, he said the resolution cannot take effect until after November because of the 27th Amendment, which prohibits any law from being enacted that increases or decreases the salaries of Congress members until after the next election of the House of Representatives.