Boxer: ‘Absolutely Inappropriate’ for Congress to Be Paid in Shutdown
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Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — With a potential government shutdown less than 12 hours away, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., called on her congressional colleagues to sign onto her bill, which would stop pay for members of Congress in the case of a government shutdown.
“It’s absolutely inappropriate. We should be treated the same as everyone,” Boxer said in a news conference Monday.
Sending a message to House Speaker John Boehner, Boxer said, “Act like a speaker of the House not just like a speaker of the Republicans and pass my bill so your people don’t get paid.”
“If he is going to force pain on everyone else, he ought to take the pain, he and his members really,” Boxer said.
The bill, called the “Government Shutdown and Default Prevention Act,” would prevent members of Congress and the president from receiving pay if “(1) there is more than a 24-hour lapse in appropriations for any federal agency or department as a result of a failure to enact a regular appropriations bill or continuing resolution, or (2) the federal government is unable to make payments or meet obligations because the public debt limit has been reached.”
Boxer and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., introduced a similar bill when a potential shutdown loomed in 2011. The bill passed the Senate but never received a vote in the House of Representatives.
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