Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) introduced a bill to reduce congressional pay to just $1 from the first day of a government shutdown, part of a flurry of bills meant to prevent an extended lapse in funding.
The United States experienced its longest government shutdown yet earlier this year, with lawmakers still receiving their salaries even as staffers and federal workers as a whole went without pay. In an effort to provide a financial incentive to avert another shutdown, Mills’s legislation would cut congressional pay until the government is reopened.
“This bill is simple. If Congress can’t do its job, Members shouldn’t get paid. Period. Congress should be held to the same accountability we owe every American family. The American people deserve a government that delivers results, not political stunts and not a Congress that rewards itself for failure,” Mills, a military veteran, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
The bill is called the “Failed to Uphold the Budget Allowance: Reduced Act,” or FUBAR Act, nodding to a military turn of phrase.
The legislation is the latest attempt to address pay that lawmakers still receive during a shutdown due to the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids changes in members’ salaries until after the next election.
REPUBLICANS PUSH LEGISLATION TO ELIMINATE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS
House members have also proposed bills to avoid shutdowns entirely. In September, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) introduced the Eliminate Shutdowns Act, which would trigger an automatic, 14-day spending patch when the deadline for government funding arrives, which then renews until a new budget is passed.
“Shutdowns are stupid, and everyone knows it,” Johnson said in a statement at the time.
The most recent shutdown, sparked by a fight over expiring Obamacare subsidies, began in October and lasted 43 days.