Sponsors
The bill creates a delayed financial penalty and clearer payroll rules intended to discourage government shutdowns and reduce legal risk, but it applies only after November 2026, may impose modest administrative burdens, and could still fail to stop shutdowns if political deadlock continues.
Taxpayers, middle-class families, and businesses: may face fewer or shorter federal shutdowns, reducing economic disruption and interruptions to federal services.
Members of Congress: will have daily pay withheld for each day of a shutdown after November 2026, creating a direct financial incentive for Members to avoid or resolve shutdowns.
Members of Congress, Treasury, and congressional payroll offices: establishes a uniform procedure to withhold pay during shutdowns and return it at the end of the 119th Congress, reducing administrative ambiguity and avoiding a potential 27th Amendment challenge.
Taxpayers, federal employees, and businesses: the financial penalty may not be sufficient to prevent shutdowns if political stalemate persists, so economic harms and service interruptions could continue despite the change.
Taxpayers, voters, and federal employees: the rule only takes effect after the November 2026 election, so it provides no immediate deterrent and could encourage strategic timing of shutdowns around that cutoff.
Taxpayers, Treasury, and congressional payroll offices: creating and managing escrow or withholding arrangements will add modest administrative complexity and costs to government payroll operations.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Reduces Members of Congress' pay by one day's pay for each 24-hour government shutdown period after the November 2026 general election and requires withholding to escrow during the 119th Congress.
Reduces Members of Congress pay for each day a federal government shutdown occurs, but only for shutdown days after the regularly scheduled November 2026 general election. During the 119th Congress payroll administrators must withhold one day’s pay per 24-hour shutdown period into an escrow account (with Treasury assistance); any amounts remaining in escrow will be released on the last day of the 119th Congress to avoid running afoul of the 27th Amendment.
Introduced October 3, 2025 by Angela Craig · Last progress October 3, 2025