Sponsors (2)
The bill stops leaders from immediately collecting pay during shutdowns and creates a standardized escrow mechanism to preserve pay parity, but it delays officials' pay, increases administrative complexity and costs, and may be perceived as a political penalty that could change incentives around shutdowns.
Members of Congress and the President/Vice President will have wages for shutdown days held in escrow and paid after the shutdown, preventing immediate collection by executives, preserving pay parity across Congresses, and avoiding unconstitutional or staggered pay changes.
Establishes a clear administrative process (escrow accounts and defined withholding/remittance rules) to pause pay during shutdowns, reducing ambiguity for payroll administrators and standardizing treatment across chambers and offices.
Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President will experience delayed receipt of pay for shutdown days, which can create short-term personal cash-flow problems until escrowed funds are released.
Creates additional administrative complexity and ongoing costs for OPM, congressional payroll offices, and contractors (setting up and managing escrow accounts, extra withholding and remittance processing), with costs ultimately borne by taxpayers.
Changing the timing of compensation via escrow may be perceived as a political penalty and could incentivize altered legislative behavior around shutdowns or fuel public mistrust.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Introduced October 17, 2025 by Frederica Wilson · Last progress October 17, 2025
Requires withholding and escrow of pay for the President, Vice President, and Members of Congress for the days a federal government shutdown is in effect. Withheld amounts equal each official’s daily pay rate times the number of full 24-hour shutdown days in a pay period; funds are released only after the shutdown ends or, if the shutdown continues to the end of a term or Congress, on the last day of that term or Congress to avoid constitutional issues.