Sponsors (7)
The bill preserves pay and continuity for most federal employees and creates clear escrow/withholding rules for officials to reduce immediate hardship and payroll errors, but it raises near‑term taxpayer costs, adds administrative complexity, and risks staffing inequities and operational gaps during shutdowns.
Most federal civil service and uniformed service employees continue to receive pay during funding gaps, preventing immediate financial hardship and helping essential government services keep running.
Members of Congress are barred from receiving contemporaneous pay during shutdowns and the bill standardizes withholding/escrow rules for Congressional payrolls, which preserves public trust and reduces payroll errors for House and Senate offices.
The President and Vice President have earned pay preserved in escrow with normal tax withholdings applied, reducing unexpected tax liabilities when those amounts are released.
Taxpayers may face additional unplanned federal outlays because the Treasury will fund pay automatically during appropriations lapses, increasing near-term government spending during shutdowns.
Excluding certain senior leaders and political appointees from pay could create morale and equity problems and produce staffing gaps that slow Executive Office operations and decisionmaking, posing potential national security or operational risks.
Escrowing pay and applying withholding rules creates administrative burden and added costs for OPM, House and Senate payroll offices, and agency payroll systems to manage escrow accounts and remittances.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Requires escrow/withholding of pay for Members, President, and Vice President during shutdowns, funds civil and uniformed service pay during lapses, and bars pay/expenses for many senior White House appointees while a shutdown lasts.
Official title: To provide for the payment of certain Federal Government employees during any lapse in discretionary appropriations and to withhold the payment of salaries to Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President during a Government shutdown, and for other purposes.
Introduced October 21, 2025 by John B. Larson · Last progress October 21, 2025
Makes temporary changes to federal pay and spending rules during a government shutdown: it directs the Treasury to fund civil‑service and uniformed service pay as needed during appropriations lapses, requires withholding and escrow of pay for Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President for days lost to a shutdown until the shutdown ends (with limited exceptions tied to the end of a Congress or term), and bars pay and expense payments to many senior White House officials while a shutdown is in effect.