Do Texans in Congress get paid during a government shutdown?

Federal employees across the country have been furloughed or required to work without pay since federal funding lapsed.

By Joseph Morton
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/

WASHINGTON – While federal workers across the country have been furloughed or required to work without pay as a government shutdown approaches its third week, members of Congress are entitled to continue collecting their salaries.

Their paychecks are not dependent on annual appropriations and members of Congress are barred from altering their pay for a current session. They are allowed only to change the salaries of future Congresses.

Senators and representatives can submit a letter requesting their pay be withheld for the shutdown’s duration. Some typically announce they are donating their paychecks to charity.

Most Texas Republicans in the U.S. House say they’ve asked for their pay to be held during this shutdown.

“I have requested that my pay be withheld until the Democrat Shutdown, led by Chuck Schumer, ends,” U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-McKinney, posted on X with a copy of the request. “All members of Congress — including those most responsible for this shutdown (Senate Democrats) — should do the same.”

Several House Republicans from Texas did not respond to requests for comment on their pay plans for the shutdown.

Among Texas Democrats, U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo, Veronica Escobar of El Paso and Al Green of Houston have said their pay will be withheld.

Other Texas Democrats either declined comment or did not respond to emails to their offices asking about their shutdown pay plans.

“I don’t think members of Congress should be paid while others are having to suffer the loss of income,” Green said during a press conference at the start of the shutdown. “I think we should suffer equally, all of us. As a matter of fact I think we ought to have a law that says this is the case.”

Legislation has been proposed to prohibit lawmakers from being paid during a shutdown, but those proposals haven’t gone anywhere.

Rank-and-file Senate and House members make $174,000 a year. The Speaker of the House makes $223,500 annually, and top leaders in both the House and Senate make $193,400.

The GOP-controlled House approved a stopgap measure to extend federal funding to mid-November. That proposal has been filibustered by Senate Democrats who say they want to roll back Medicaid changes Republicans pushed through over the summer and address enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire soon.

Republican leaders say they are up for discussing health care policy, but only once Senate Democrats vote for the House-passed measure and reopen the government.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, announced on the shutdown’s first day he was having his pay withheld and used the opportunity to bash Democrats.

“Due to Senator Schumer’s Shutdown over his deranged demand that we provide free healthcare for illegal aliens and that we reverse the Republican reforms blocking handouts to able-bodied adults who refuse to work, I have asked the Financial Clerk of the Senate to hold my salary,” Cruz posted on X.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, initially told The Dallas Morning News last week he was not planning to have his pay withheld during the shutdown, saying it’s Senate Democrats voting to keep the government closed.

The next day he said he’d reconsidered and would have it withheld.

“The more I thought about it, I just can’t in good conscience accept my paycheck when the troops are not getting paid,” Cornyn said. “And I didn’t know how long this was going to last obviously.”

U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, who last week announced a primary challenge to Cornyn, declined comment through an aide on his plans for shutdown pay.

Lawmakers who have their pay withheld will receive it once the government opens again. Federal workers also are typically entitled to retroactive back pay after a shutdown.

Congress has often made that part of measures reopening the government after a shutdown. It passed a 2019 law intended to guarantee such back pay, although the White House has questioned whether it applies to all federal workers.

A draft memo by the Office of Management and Budget suggested some furloughed federal workers might not be entitled to back pay under the law.

When asked about guaranteed pay for furloughed workers last week, President Donald Trump told reporters it depends and that some people would be taken care of and others “really don’t deserve to be taken care of.”

Joseph Morton covers the intersection of business and politics in the Washington Bureau. Before joining The News, Joseph worked for CQ Roll Call and the Omaha World-Herald. He graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.