Here's a question that gets the same answer from almost everyone, Republican or Democrat: during a government shutdown, should Members of Congress keep getting paid?
Right now, they do. Every time. Over the past year we lived through a 43-day shutdown in the fall of 2025, then a 76-day Homeland Security shutdown in 2026, the longest in American history. Federal workers went without paychecks. Airport lines stretched for hours. And the 535 people whose job it is to fund the government were paid on schedule the entire time, because their salaries come from a permanent appropriation that never lapses. (Wikipedia; CRS)
Today we're publishing our fourth common-sense bill, the No Budget, No Pay Act. Fair warning: it's deliberately not the boldest version of this idea. It's the version we think can actually pass, and we'll tell you exactly what it leaves out.
This Has Been Tried Before
In January 2013, Congress needed to raise the debt limit. House Republicans attached a sweetener: if either chamber failed to adopt a budget resolution by April 15, its Members' pay would go into escrow until it did. The deal passed the House 285–144 and the Senate 64–34, and President Obama signed it. (Wikipedia)
It worked. Both chambers beat the deadline, and the Senate passed its first budget in four years.
Then it stopped working. The House and Senate had passed two very different budgets, and over the following months a handful of senators repeatedly blocked the two sides from even sitting down to reconcile them. (The Hill) That October, the government shut down for 16 days anyway. And because the 2013 law covered one year only, it quietly expired. Versions have been reintroduced in nearly every Congress since, by Democrats and Republicans, and none has passed.
That history teaches three things. The pressure works when it's real. It has to be permanent. And a budget passed by one chamber doesn't keep the government open.
What Our Bill Does
- Makes the 2013 rule permanent. Miss the April 15 budget deadline, and that chamber's pay goes into escrow until it votes on a budget, every year, not just once. A procedural trick that "deems" a budget adopted without a real vote doesn't count.
- Adds a shutdown trigger: pay parity. During any shutdown, every Member's pay is held in escrow and released when it ends. That's exactly how furloughed federal workers are treated: not paid during, paid in full after. Congress gets no better deal than the people it sends home.
- Closes the backdoors. No paying Members out of office accounts in the meantime, and no waiving the law for a given year.
- Publishes an annual report card. Every October, the Government Accountability Office reports whether each chamber passed a budget, which spending bills were on time, and how long any shutdown lasted.
- Protects workers. Staff and federal employees aren't touched.
Why the First Step, and Not the Whole Staircase
We'd rather pass something real than introduce something perfect that never gets a vote. This version is built to pass. Escrow delays pay instead of cutting it, the design Congress already approved in 2013, so it avoids a court fight over the 27th Amendment, which bars changing congressional pay until after an election. "Members should be paid on the same terms as the federal workers they furloughed" is a position almost nobody wants to vote against. And it has a proven path: attach it to the next must-pass stopgap or debt-limit bill, just like 2013.
Here's what it doesn't do, and what we'll keep pushing for:
- It's a delay, not a penalty. Members eventually get every dollar, so a millionaire Member barely notices. The full fix is permanent forfeiture for missed days, taking effect after the next election as the Constitution requires.
- It doesn't require the actual spending bills on time. A budget resolution is a plan, not a law. The full fix ties pay to passing all twelve spending bills by October 1, a deadline met four times in fifty years, which is exactly why it can't pass yet. The annual report card starts building the public pressure.
- It doesn't force the two chambers to agree, which is exactly what went wrong in 2013.
- It doesn't end shutdowns. That takes our No More Shutdowns amendment, which keeps the government funded automatically if Congress misses the deadline.
And because deadline pressure can tempt leaders to rush, the second bill we're publishing today is the 72-Hour Rule: on time, but never unread.
And Then What?
We like to judge proposals by the second question: and then what? Here the answer is modest but real. Make the 2013 rule permanent, and budget deadlines start getting met again. Treat Members like furloughed workers during a shutdown, and "let it shut down" stops being a free move for anyone in Congress. Publish an on-time report card every fall, and the case for the bigger reforms builds itself.
It's a first step. It's also one Congress has already taken once. Let's make it permanent.
Read the bill, download the documents, and send it to your Representative →
Sources
• No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013 — Wikipedia
• Senate GOP denies formation of budget conference for third time — The Hill
• 2025 United States federal government shutdown — Wikipedia
• 2026 United States federal government shutdowns — Wikipedia
• The 2025 (FY2026) Government Shutdown: Economic Effects — Congressional Research Service
• Overview of Continuing Appropriations for FY2027 — Congressional Research Service
• S.88 — No Budget, No Pay Act (119th Congress) — Congress.gov