As federal employees brace themselves for their first missed paychecks should lawmakers fail to reach a consensus by midnight Tuesday, some members of Congress have decided to join them in a show of solidarity and refuse their paychecks.
So far, 64 members of Congress say they will turn down their paychecks during the partial government shutdown, according to social media posts and statements reviewed by CNN. That comprises 13 senators and 51 representatives, with members from both parties making up a similar proportion of those going without pay. Fourteen representatives passing on pay are newly elected and were sworn in this year.
While most have asked House Chief Administrative Officer Phil Kiko to withhold their pay, others say they plan to donate it to particular charities or causes.
Among them is Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who tweeted on New Year’s Day — the day after she announced she would explore a 2020 presidential run — that she would be donating her paycheck to HIAS, a nonprofit that helps refugees.
Several members of Congress have also pushed legislation that would penalize members for allowing a shutdown to occur. Rep. Kurt Schrader, an Oregon Democrat, introduced a bill in 2017 that would automatically dock members’ pay during government shutdowns, and Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, introduced a constitutional amendment the day before the government shut down that would ban them from being paid.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, one of seven House Republicans who voted to reopen the federal government, urged all members to join him in declining his paycheck.
“Everybody ought to follow the lead that several of us have already set: Don’t get paid,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday. “If you’re in Congress, don’t just delay your pay — forfeit it, write a check back to the US Treasury. Then you’ll feel the pain of these federal workers.”
Here are the members of Congress who won’t receive their paychecks during the shutdown:
House of Representatives
- Rep. Denver Riggleman (new, R-Virginia) (donating salary to volunteer fire department)
- Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tennessee)
- Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pennsylvania)
- Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pennsylvania)
- Rep. Dutch Ruppersburger (D-Maryland)
- Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-New York)
- Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-Arizona)
- Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tennessee)
- Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas)
- Rep. Jason Smith (R-Missouri)
- Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-New York)
- Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado)
- Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Washington) (donating to the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project)
- Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) (donating to food banks in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens)
- Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California)
- Rep. Mark Meadows (R-North Carolina)
- Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah)
- Rep. Ben McAdams (new, D-Utah)
- Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Indiana)
- Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Florida)
- Rep. Angie Craig (new, D-Minnesota)
- Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Montana)
- Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Oklahoma) (donating to veterans groups)
- Rep. French Hill (R-Arkansas)
- Rep. Chris Pappas (new, D-New Hampshire)
- Rep. George Holding (R-North Carolina)
- Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas)
- Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio)
- Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio)
- Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Michigan)
- Rep. Max Rose (new, D-New York)
- Rep. Mikie Sherrill (new, D-New Jersey)
- Rep. Ross Spano (new, R-Florida)
- Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York)
- Rep. Van Taylor (new, R-Texas)
- Rep. Mark Walker (R-North Carolina)
- Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-New York)
- Rep. Abigail Spanberger (new, D-Virginia)
- Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming)
- Rep. Elaine Luria (new, D-Virginia)
- Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Illinois)
- Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania)
- Rep. Mark Green (new, R-Tennessee)
- Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska)
- Rep. Elissa Slotkin (new, D-Michigan)
- Rep. David Trone (new, D-Maryland)
- Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina)
- Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Virginia) (donating to a charity to be determined)
- Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nevada)
- Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Oregon) (donating to an Oregon charity)
- Rep. Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina) (donating to a charity to be determined)
- Rep. David Schweikert (R-Arizona)
- Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Virginia)
Senators
- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) (donating to West Virginia food banks)
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) (donating to refugee group HIAS)
- Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) (donating to Hawaiian food banks)
- Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) (donating to Nevada charity)
- Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) (donating to unspecified charity)
- Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) (donating to The Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh)
- Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana) (donating to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation)
- Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania)
- Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana)
- Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) (donating to Homes For The Brave)
- Sen. Jacky Rosen (new, D-Nevada) (donating to domestic violence survivor programs in Nevada)
- Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minnesota) (donating to Advocates for Human Rights)
- Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) (donating to charity, likely the North Dakota National Guard Foundation and the United Way’s Emergency Homeless Shelter in Bismarck)
-Caroline Kelly reporting for CNN
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