If the government shuts down after Tuesday, millions of federal workers will be at risk of missing a paycheck.
Members of Congress, on the other hand, won’t have to worry about that.
That’s in large part thanks to the US Constitution. Article I, Section 6 requires that senators and representatives “receive a Compensation for their Services,” while the 27th Amendment states that any law changing that compensation can’t take effect before the following election.
Since 1981, lawmakers’ salaries have been funded via mandatory spending, which is not impacted by government shutdowns. Rank-and-file members of Congress are paid $174,000 per year, a figure that hasn’t budged since 2009, despite inflation.
That doesn’t mean lawmakers haven’t recognized how bad that looks.
Rep. Angie Craig introduced a bill on Tuesday called the “No Pay for Disarray” Act, which would dock each day’s pay for the duration of the shutdown from lawmakers’ salaries.
In order to comply with the 27th amendment, that amount would be returned to lawmakers at the end of the session. The Minnesota Democrat previously introduced a version of the bill in 2023.
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And Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania sent a letter to the Chief Administrative Officer of the House asked that his paychecks be withheld during the shutdown, though it’s not clear if that would be legal.
In any case, nothing stops members of Congress from accepting a paycheck, then donating it to charity or forfeiting it to the US Treasury.
While federal workers could miss paychecks — especially if the shutdown drags on for more than a week — those who are not permanently fired will ultimately be paid in full.
After the last government shutdown in 2019, Congress passed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, which guarantees retroactive pay to federal workers who are furloughed during a government shutdown.
Funding for the federal government is set to run out at midnight on Tuesday.
Both parties have been at odds over passing a short-term funding bill, with Democrats pushing for a reversal to Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and a permanent extension of tax credits supporting the Affordable Care act.
