Senate unanimously advances resolution suspending senators’ pay during shutdown

May 14, 2026 3oliver

Senate unanimously advances resolution suspending senators’ pay during shutdown

Alexander Bolton

Wed, May 13, 2026 at 5:27 PM UTC

2 min read

The Senate on Wednesday unanimously voted to advance a resolution sponsored by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) to suspend senators’ pay during a government shutdown, something that could give lawmakers a powerful incentive not to shutter federal departments because of funding disputes in future years.

The resolution only applies to members of the Senate and does not need to be approved by the House or signed by President Trump.

It would take effect after the midterm election, so it would not apply to a possible government shutdown this fall, which Republicans think is likely to happen because of the deep animosity between Trump and Democratic senators.

The Senate voted 99-0 on the motion to end debate on proceeding to the resolution, signaling that it will easily have enough support to pass the upper chamber.

The measure stipulates that if Congress fails to provide funding for federal agencies before the deadline, members of the Senate will not get paid.

A senator would not lose his or her salary, as the money would be put in an escrow account. But the money would not be available to lawmakers while the government is shut down.

Senators voted to approve the resolution after the federal government was shut down for a record 43 days in the fall of 2025 because of a dispute over the expiration of enhanced health insurance premium subsidies.

Then the Department of Homeland Security was shut down for 76 days this year after Democrats refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol without reforms following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents.

Kennedy said he wanted to make the resolution effective immediately because he’s “very concerned that my Senate colleagues on the Democratic side are going to try to shut down government yet again right before the elections to try to create chaos to affect the midterm elections.”

But he said the resolution cannot take effect until after November because of the 27th Amendment, which prohibits passage of any law that increases or decreases the salaries of members of Congress until after the next election of the House of Representatives.

Kennedy cited last year’s full-government shutdown and this year’s partial government shutdown in a speech on the floor before the vote.