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  • 2018-01-22 (xsd:date)
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  • Does Congress Get Paid While Military Personnel Do Not During a Government Shutdown? (en)
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  • Much of the United States government ceased operations at midnight on 20 January 2018 after Congress failed to pass a short-term funding bill to keep the government going, until a permanent appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018 could be hammered out. A government shutdown means all but the most essential operations come to a halt and many federal employees are furloughed and most stop receiving paychecks until Congress breaks its deadlock and funding is restored. Along with questions about mail delivery, Social Security payments, and whether or not national parks would be open through the shutdown, some readers wanted to know if members of the military are still on duty, and whether they get paid. Some readers put the question this way: Is it true that members of Congress still get paid during a government shutdown, while military personnel do not? The short answer to the question is yes. Unlike most federal workers and members of the military, whose pay must be appropriated annually, the salaries of House and Senate members are permanently authorized in the U.S. Constitution. With respect to the military, an U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) memo issued on 18 January and signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan: The last time a government shutdown of this kind occurred, in September 2013, the House and Senate unanimously passed a bill ensuring that military paychecks would continue. Similar effort this time around failed. Regarding House and Senate members' pay, the Congressional Research Service notes that: This means members of Congress are paid regardless of the status of the federal budget. Although an eleventh-hour bill calling for withholding members' salaries was introduced before the shutdown, it failed to pass. Some members have announced they will voluntarily forego their salaries until government funding is restored, with some pledging to donate their pay to charity. A vote in the U.S. Senate to end the shutdown by passing a short-term (three-week) spending bill was scheduled to take place at noon EST on 22 January. (en)
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