White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday declined to respond to proposals that would punish members of Congress in the event of a government shutdown. Funding for the federal government currently runs out on April 28, just days after Congress returns from recess.
“There’s a proposal now to punish members of Congress who do not pass this spending plan in a variety of ways, withhold salary, even arrest,” McClatchy’s Anita Kumar asked Spicer during his daily briefing. “Do you support that Congress should be punished?”
“Let’s see. I think we’re making significant progress,” Spicer said. “I feel very good about their momentum and so I don’t want to start getting into whether who’s going to be naughty and nice.”
Sens. Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) introduced bipartisan legislation earlier this month that would force senators to remain in Washington, D.C., until the resolution of such a shutdown. The bill calls for the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms to “arrest missing senators” who fail to respond to a request for quorum, the minimum attendance necessary to conduct Senate business.
The “No Budget, No Pay Act,” which Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) introduced in March, would stop the pay of members of Congress in “any fiscal year in which Congress has not approved a concurrent resolution on the budget and passed the regular appropriations bills.”
Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN) also introduced in March the “No Government No Pay Act,” which would “prohibit the pay” of members of Congress during a governmental shutdown.
Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) in March introduced a bill “to reduce the annual rate of pay of Members of Congress if a Government shutdown occurs during a year.”
“In every other profession, if you don’t do your job, you don’t get paid,” Schrader told McClatchy in a report published Wednesday. “Why on earth should we be any different?”
