Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) sent a letter to the Senate budgetary leadership, urging them to include their No Budget, No Pay provision in the budget to prevent lawmakers from receiving a paycheck in the event of a government shutdown.
Braun, Scott, and Sinema sent the letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee leadership, calling on them to add a No Appropriations, No Pay provision in the Appropriations Act to prevent members of Congress from getting paid if they fail to pass a budget.
Scott and Braun’s legislation was successfully added to the Government Shutdown Accountability Act and passed out at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs meeting this week.
Sinema introduced similar legislation that would put lawmakers’ legislation into escrow until they passed a budget, to which Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said he was “very concerned” about the bill’s precedent.
“There is no reason members of Congress should receive an increase in their taxpayer-funded salaries, especially when there are so many issues important to American families that we should be focused on instead,” the senators wrote in their letter to Senate Legislative Branch Subcommittee chairman Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) and ranking member Chris Murphy (D-CT).
“It is not fair that government is held to a different standard than the rest of America, and we hope that all members can get behind this common-sense provision that saves tax dollars and puts hardworking American families first,” the three senators added.
Braun introduced the legislation back in January to force Congress to take its budgetary duties seriously. Braun told Breitbart News in January that the legislation would “put some teeth into the fact” that the budgetary process has become a “circus annually.”
Braun said that the legislation’s progress through the Senate serves as a “big step” toward getting Congress to work for the American people again.
The legislation serves as another method through which three freshmen senators can shake up the congressional establishment and help Congress pass a budget.
Braun said in an interview with Breitbart News this week that populism continues to fight against the “entrenched” establishment.
Read the senators’ letter to the Senate Budget Committee here.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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