Sinema, lawmakers renew call for ‘No Budget, No Pay’ legislation

PHOENIX — U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona renewed a call to withhold paychecks for members of Congress if end-of-year spending bills fail to pass.

Sinema and other members of Congress penned a bipartisan letter to House and Senate leaders urging for “No Budget, No Pay” legislation to prevent future government shutdowns from happening.

“Members of Congress must do their jobs and fund critical services Arizonans rely on; if they fail to do so, Congress shouldn’t get paid,” Sinema said in a statement.

Sinema has previously supported similar legislation as both a congresswoman and senator.

Government funding for nearly all agencies is set to run out on Dec. 11.

“Hardworking Americans across the country are still struggling to recover from the coronavirus, yet members of Congress will still get paid if they fail to do their most basic job of funding the government,” the letter said.

Congress shouldn’t get paid if it fails to do its job. https://t.co/VNHo25qpBu

— Kyrsten Sinema (@SenatorSinema) December 3, 2020

More than a dozen members of Congress signed the letter.

“If Americans failed to do their jobs, they would be held accountable. The same should be true of Congress,” they wrote.

The letter points out that language similar to this proposal was approved by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in 2019, and has been included as part of the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, which has yet to be passed.

Both Sinema and then-Sen. Martha McSally co-sponsored last year’s proposal and both refused to take their salaries during the January 2019 shutdown.

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