Cosponsors Bill to Prevent Congress From Receiving Pay During Government Shutdowns
Watch Congressman Buchanan’s full interview here.
WASHINGTON — Last night, Congressman Vern Buchanan, Vice Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, joined ABC 7 News to discuss Senate Democrats’ failure to reopen the government and how the Democrat Shutdown is harming Floridians.
Buchanan also announced that he is cosponsoring legislation to withhold congressional pay during government shutdowns. Buchanan is cosponsoring the No Budget, No Pay Act (H.R. 5738), led by Congressman Tim Moore (R-N.C.).
On Senate Democrats refusing to vote to reopen the government:
Rep. Buchanan: “A lot of our [federal] employees—across the state, 155,000 are furloughed—if they’re not getting paid, they’ve got to worry, our members shouldn’t get paid either. We need to have them step up. As Republicans, we have voted to open the government. On the other side, we’ve got five or six senators holding it up, Democratic senators. … Under the Biden administration, 13 different times in a row, we did the same thing in terms of a CR. We need to step up and make a difference for our people across the country.
…
“A lot of people don’t understand. The CR, I voted for that. All Republicans did, with maybe the exception of one. All the [Republican] senators have supported it. I don’t understand why [Senate Democrats] don’t just do it like we’ve done for the last four or five years, where we’ve passed a CR, we get to work and we deal in good faith. … Members have to step up on both sides.”
On withholding congressional pay during government shutdowns:
Rep. Buchanan: “We’re [co]sponsoring a bill that says, ‘No Budget, No Pay.’ If you don’t deliver a budget, get back to work. I’m a person who has been in business for a lot of years, and I always felt that I eat last. I had a lot of employees. Everybody else gets taken care of—the customers get taken care of, your vendors get taken care of—and if there’s something left, that’s yours. The bottom line is that’s where I’m at now. Enough is enough, and I’m hearing a lot of that from my constituents. What are we doing? We’re not doing enough.”
On the Democrat Shutdown hurting small businesses and employees:
Rep. Buchanan: “As a small business person myself, there’s a lot of small business people I talk to everyday. The uncertainty is killing them. There are government programs and projects that aren’t getting paid, and they’ve walked off the jobs. So it’s a bad situation. We’ve got to turn it around, and I’m going to do everything I can to turn that around quickly.”
Buchanan has created a shutdown resource hub for his constituents impacted by the shutdown at buchanan.house.gov/shutdown.
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DEMOCRAT SHUTDOWN BY THE NUMBERS
- Florida’s economy will lose approximately $911 million each week the shutdown extends, the equivalent of $4 billion per month
- Florida’s nearly 155,000 federal workers have been furloughed or are working without pay
- Over 2.9 million SNAP enrollees in Florida are at risk of losing benefits if the shutdown continues
- Source: White House Council of Economic Advisors
