In an effort to keep Congress answerable to the taxpayers they serve, Congressman Kurt Schrader (OR-05) reintroduced the Hold Congress Accountable Act.
“In the real world, if you don’t do your job, you don’t get paid. In Congress, we are tasked with keeping the government running. Therefore, if the government shuts down we should not get paid,” said Congressman Schrader. “The bill is simple and mandates that during a government shutdown, Members of Congress will not receive their salaries. It’s commonsense—if we’re not performing the most basic of functions that we were sent here to do, we should not be compensated.”
To hold Congress accountable during a shutdown and comply with the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, the bill holds Member pay for each day of a government shutdown in escrow accounts until the last day of the 114th Congress.
Members in future congresses foolish enough to let the process break down as it did in the 104th and 113th Congresses will simply have their pay reduced for each day of any subsequent shutdowns. This provision will affect the 115th and subsequent Congresses.
Congressman Schrader first introduced the bill in the 113th Congress, during the damaging government shutdown.
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