Senators have unanimously voted to withhold their own pay during future government shutdowns.
The paused funds would be paid at the end of the shutdown, and the resolution, sponsored by Louisiana Republican John Kennedy, will take effect after the midterm elections this November.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Kennedy said, ‘We ought to hide our heads in a bag,’ lambasting his colleagues for the two most recent government shutdowns.
The most recent shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which ended late last month, took 76 days to resolve.
Last year, the majority of the federal government was shut down for 43 days as Democrats on Capitol Hill stood their ground and let funding lapse due to the expiration of healthcare subsidies.
‘It’s got to stop. Shutting down government — it should not be our default solution to our refusal to work out our issues and our differences,’ Kennedy told his colleagues on the floor.
Kennedy also added that he wanted to make the proposal effective immediately, as he is ‘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.’
The 27th amendment to the Constitution prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of Congress from taking effect until after the next election of the House of Representatives has occurred.
Louisiana Republican John Kennedy on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on February 10, 2026
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC was temporarily closed due to the budget impasse on Capitol Hill on October 6, 2025
Kennedy’s resolution applies only to Senators, not to members of the US House of Representatives. As the resolution is not a law and only meant to handle internal chamber procedures, it doesn’t require input from the House or the president.
Asked why this measure does not extend to the House, Kennedy stated, ‘the House’s business is the House’s business.’
‘There’s a very strong undercurrent of animosity among some of my friends in the House,’ Kennedy added.
‘It’s quickly becoming like two kids fighting in the back of a minivan,’ he concluded, per the Associated Press.
In a statement issued by his office after the resolution’s passage, Kennedy noted that the legislative measure was ‘about shared sacrifice. If senators are going to vote to shut down the government and prevent millions of federal workers from getting paid, they ought to have the same skin in the game. ‘
‘My resolution will ensure that senators aren’t the only people receiving their paychecks during a government shutdown,’ Kennedy said.
Kennedy first introduced an earlier version of the resolution in November of 2025, during last year’s government shutdown.
He also moved to pass the resolution by unanimous consent during the more recent DHS shutdown, but Hawaii Democrat Brian Schatz objected to the measure without giving a reason.
Kennedy’s resolution finally passed on Thursday by unanimous consent, after advancing just past noon on Wednesday with a vote of 99-0. Nebraska Republican Pete Ricketts did not vote on the measure on Wednesday, as he had presumably not returned to Washington after his primary election on Tuesday.
