Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) announced Thursday that he has introduced legislation to prevent members of Congress from getting paid if they don’t pass a budget on time.
Wittman re-introduced the “No Budget, No Pay Act,” which prevents members of the House or Senate from receiving paychecks if their respective chambers haven’t passed a budget by April 15.
{mosads}The Virginia Republican also introduced a resolution that would prevent Congress from adjourning for the August recess unless all 12 annual appropriations bills have been passed by July 31.
Wittman said the measures would help Congress avoid governing by crisis like it has over the last four years.
“For far too long, Congress has failed to fund the government on schedule and has fallen into a cycle of crisis management with short-sighted, temporary budget measures,” Wittman said on the House floor. “These are commonsense initiatives that will restore regular budget order and provide certainty to our communities.”
Two years ago, both chambers cleared into law a version of “No Budget, No Pay” as part of a measure to suspend the debt limit. Under that measure, lawmakers would not get their paychecks unless each chamber passed a budget by April 15.
However, the law never required both chambers to agree on a unified budget resolution.