The Senate is preparing to vote on whether lawmakers themselves should continue collecting paychecks during future government shutdowns as Congress braces for the possibility of yet another fiscal standoff under President Trump’s second term.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune quietly moved forward Monday on a resolution from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., that would block senators from receiving pay during any federal shutdown. The proposal comes after a string of repeated funding crises that have pushed Washington to the edge of closure multiple times over the last year and a half.
Kennedy’s resolution is simple and politically difficult to oppose: if the government shuts down, senators stop getting paid too.
When asked about the measure advancing toward a vote, Kennedy made clear he personally pushed Thune to move it forward.
“He did it, and I think he’s a fine American,” Kennedy said.
The move reflects growing frustration among Republicans who argue shutdown threats have increasingly become a standard negotiating tactic used by Democrats during Trump’s second term.
Congress has already approached shutdown territory four separate times since Trump returned to office. Those confrontations resulted in both the longest full government shutdown in U.S. history and the longest partial shutdown on record.
Now some Republicans fear Democrats may attempt another closure before the 2026 midterms, particularly as major fights over immigration enforcement and federal spending continue escalating.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., sharply criticized Senate Democrats and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, accusing them of weaponizing shutdown threats for political leverage.
“Legislative terrorists” was how Schmitt described Democrats during remarks this week, arguing they view shutdowns as opportunities rather than last-resort failures of governance.
“It’ll be something else, and then we’ll just shut the whole thing down, and we should not let them do that,” Schmitt said. “So I think we ought to have some plans in place to account for that, to make it painful for them if they want to do that, because the American people suffer on it.”
Republicans are now floating several different ideas aimed either at preventing shutdowns entirely or reducing the political leverage attached to them.
Kennedy’s proposal targets lawmakers directly by cutting off congressional paychecks during closures.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has introduced the Shutdown Fairness Act, which would ensure federal employees who continue working during shutdowns still receive pay despite funding lapses.
Meanwhile, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., is pushing the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, which would automatically keep the government funded in rolling two-week increments until Congress reaches a long-term agreement.
“We need to pass it so we never have a moment like this again,” Lankford said. “We will have disagreements. It’s America, but we should not have federal workers, programs that stop because we’re having a disagreement. Let’s have the fight. But let’s keep going.”
The timing of the Senate push is significant because lawmakers are simultaneously scrambling to secure funding for immigration operations over the next several years — one of the very issues that helped fuel previous shutdown fights.
Republicans increasingly argue that repeated shutdown brinkmanship damages public confidence in government while unfairly punishing federal workers and military families caught in the middle of political warfare.
