Senators vote to dock their own pay during future government shutdowns 

An even larger swath of government was closed for 43 days last fall due to a separate dispute with Democrats over Obamacare subsidies.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), is designed to address the political optics of lawmakers receiving paychecks as other federal employees, sometimes including their own staff, go without pay. The circumstance is due to both a quirk in the Constitution and a permanent allocation for lawmakers’ salaries dating back to 1983.

“We ought to hide our heads in a bag,” Kennedy said in a Wednesday floor speech. “It’s got to stop. Shutting down government should not be our default solution to our refusal to work out our issues and our differences.”

The legislation is also premised on the hope that withholding senators’ salaries will decrease the chances of future shutdowns. Senators would still get paid, but their paychecks would be held in an escrow account until the government reopens.

The House is not bound by the resolution, though companion legislation has been introduced there, too, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) previously told the Washington Examiner that he’ll “see what consensus we can build on it.”

The Senate vote came after months of Kennedy pressuring GOP leadership, and Thune eventually agreed as part of negotiations over DHS funding.