09/29/2026
The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a resolution from Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, requiring senators to forfeit their pay whenever the federal government shuts down, a rule that will take effect after the November 2026 midterm elections.
The resolution, S. Res. 526, first cleared a procedural hurdle on a 99-0 cloture vote before passing by voice vote. Under its terms, the secretary of the Senate will withhold all salary payments to senators during a shutdown and place the money in an escrow account, to be released only once government funding is restored. It does not require House approval or a presidential signature to take effect.
Kennedy had pushed the measure since November 2025, during what became a 43-day full government shutdown followed by a separate 76-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Speaking on the Senate floor before the vote, he said, “Last October, we shut down government for 43 days. That is the longest shutdown in history,” adding that federal workers, FBI agents, and park rangers went unpaid while Congress collected checks. “We ought to hide our heads in a bag,” he said. “It’s got to stop.” He later credited Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota for scheduling the vote, saying, “I asked him to do it, and he did it,” and calling Thune “a fine American for doing it.”
Thune tied the measure to the recent funding fight, saying Democrats had forced the shutdown and that withholding senators’ pay might “provide an additional incentive to keep Senate Democrats in the future from shutting the government down again.” Democrats have countered that the standoff centered on disputes over federal immigration enforcement, not spending discipline. A similar House companion, the No Shutdown Paychecks to Politicians Act, backed by Senator John Cornyn of Texas, remains pending, and the new rule will not apply to any shutdown that might occur before the September 30 end of the current fiscal year.
