No budget, no pay: NC congressman wants to halt colleagues’ pay in future standoffs
A North Carolina congressman is working to ensure that failure to pass a budget will cost his colleagues.
Rep. Wiley Nickel, a Democrat from Cary, introduced a bill on Friday that would prevent members of Congress from being paid if they failed to pass a budget resolution by April 15 or if both chambers fail to pass all regular appropriations bills by Sept. 30 for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
“Members of Congress shouldn’t get paid if they don’t do their job,” Nickel said in a news release announcing his bill. “It’s our job to fund the government. Federal employees won’t get paid if we have a government shutdown, so why should members of Congress continue to get their paychecks? This bill will incentivize Congress to get it done and prevent future shutdowns.”
Seven of Nickel’s Democratic colleagues have signed onto the legislation.
“For months, Republicans in power have fumbled the ball on Congress’ most basic function: fund its government,” said Rep. David Trone, a Democrat from Maryland, in a written statement. “If Congress can’t do its job, we shouldn’t get paid. It’s just that simple.”
Congress must pass a budget by Saturday to keep the government running.
“Make no mistake, a government shutdown would hurt our economy, it would risk our national security and it would be a disaster for North Carolina’s working families,” Nickel said during a news conference Friday. “Hundreds of thousands of people, including our congressional staff, would be put on temporary leave without pay or be forced to work without pay.”
Programs from Head Start to the National Parks Service would be stymied, air traffic could be stretch to its limits and programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would be affected within a month.
McCarthy vs. the Freedom Caucus
For the past two weeks, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has tried to pass a budget to prevent a shutdown from happening, but he’s been stymied by the far-right House Freedom Caucus, who have a list of demands including their opposition to funding Ukraine and defunding federal law enforcement.
Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House by only nine members, making the House Freedom Caucus and other disgruntled colleagues a powerful force. Even McCarthy’s attempts to pass a short-term spending bill has been sabotaged.
North Carolina’s Rep. Dan Bishop is among the Freedom Caucus members standing in McCarthy’s way. Since returning from the House’s August recess, Bishop has been clear about his frustration with leadership and the government’s spending levels.
On Thursday, McCarthy attempted to bring the defense appropriations bill to the floor, but five Republicans, including Bishop, helped Democrats vote it down, leaving McCarthy to recess the House for the weekend having accomplished little. It was the third time McCarthy had tried to take up the vote.
“I took down the rule — as I vowed I would — because the Conference continues not to have moved 12 appropriations bills at the spending level agreed to in January,” Bishop wrote on Twitter after the initial vote. “I assume leadership believes me now.”
On Monday, Reuters reported that when lawmakers return to the Hill this week they will hold votes imposing new abortion access restrictions, clawing back an $11 billion climate initiative championed by the Biden administration and resuming building a wall on the southern border. Neither the Democrat-led Senate nor Biden would support those initiatives, but McCarthy told reporters Monday that it allowed the Freedom Caucus the will to work.
When the government would shut down
Meanwhile, the Senate will try to pass its own legislation to keep the government funded through December, that will have to clear the House.
If neither McCarthy nor the Senate’s plan works by Saturday, the government shutters.
“The Freedom Caucus loves to waste time trying to defund Ukraine, FEMA, and the DOJ,” said Congressman Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida, in a written statement. ”As long as they keep this up, we should defund their paychecks.”
If Nickel’s bill passes it wouldn’t take effect immediately. It would begin in the next Congress.
There’s a similar bill in the Senate and a second bill already introduced in the House that would hold pay in escrow until a budget is passed.
