The Senate moved one step closer Wednesday to making government shutdowns personally painful for lawmakers, unanimously advancing a proposal from Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) that would suspend senators’ pay during future shutdowns.
Kennedy’s resolution cleared its first procedural hurdle with support from both Republicans and Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), despite Democrats having repeatedly flirted with shutdown brinkmanship over the past year. The measure now heads toward a final vote in the Senate.
The proposal, which Kennedy has branded a resolution of “shared sacrifice,” would direct the secretary of the Senate to withhold senators’ pay whenever the federal government shuts down. Rank-and-file senators currently earn $174,000 annually, while leadership positions can exceed $193,000 per year.
There is one major catch: the measure would not take effect until after the upcoming election cycle.
That delay has done little to calm Republican concerns that Democrats could still attempt another shutdown fight ahead of the midterms, particularly given how frequently shutdown threats have surfaced during President Trump’s second term.
“If I were king for a day — I’m not, I don’t aspire to be — but if I were, I’d make this resolution effective immediately,” Kennedy said. “Because I’m very concerned that my Senate colleagues on the Democratic side are going to try to shut down the government yet again right before the elections to try to create chaos to affect the midterm elections.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) suggested Democrats’ support for the measure may have been driven less by principle than by political optics.
“I think it helps,” Thune told Fox News Digital. “That’s a really bad posture to be in if you’re opposing something like that at a time when you got a lot of government employees who aren’t getting paid, and people up here are voting against depriving themselves of pay when everybody else is not getting paid.”
Thune added that Democrats likely understood how politically toxic opposition to the measure would appear.
“I think that’s a very difficult political vote for Democrats,” he said. “I’m guessing they had a fairly robust conversation at their lunch yesterday.”
The issue has gained traction after shutdown battles became increasingly common over the past year and a half. Congress has reportedly come close to a shutdown four separate times during Trump’s current term, with Democrats repeatedly using funding standoffs as leverage during broader policy disputes.
Kennedy’s proposal is not the only reform effort circulating in the Senate. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has introduced the Shutdown Fairness Act, which would guarantee pay for federal employees required to continue working during shutdowns. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) has pushed the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, which would automatically extend government funding in two-week increments until lawmakers reach a final agreement.
The recent push for reform follows a series of lengthy funding standoffs, including a 43-day shutdown tied to Obamacare subsidy disputes and a 76-day Department of Homeland Security funding fight.
