Tag: Salary

Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who won her bid for a seat in the House of Representatives in New York's 14th Congressional District. Charles Krupa/AP/REX/Shutterstock As thousands of government employees fret over whether they will receive their January paychecks, one category of government workers will continue to be paid regardless of a shutdown: senators and members of Congress. In a tweet on Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez wrote, “Next time we have a [government] shutdown, Congressional salaries should be furloughed as well. Have some integrity. https://t.co/BgueNNjf0f — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 22, 2018 A quarter of the federal government is currently shut down because Republicans and Democrats could not agree on funding of the president’s border wall, and the shutdown could continue into 2019 when Democrats take over in the new Congressional session, according to incoming acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. But, as Ocasio-Cortez pointed out, representatives and senators will still receive their $174,000 a year salary because Congress wrote them into law. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) announced she will donate her salary to a charity in Nevada for every day of the shutdown. I cannot take a salary during a government shutdown knowing that so many federal workers in Nevada and across the country will go without pay. I submitted a letter today requesting that my pay be withheld during this partial government shutdown: pic.twitter.com/9glqRgmlCG — Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) December 22, 2018 This is not the first time lawmakers have called for Congressional salaries to be furloughed along with federal employees’. Ocasio-Cortez added that she hoped losing shutdown pay “would also cause members who actually depend on their salary to think twice about leadership and take a shutdown vote more seriously.” Because while many wealthy members of Congress can afford to miss a paycheck or two, many Americans, including federal workers, cannot.