To: The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate
Congress should not be paid during a government shutdown.
It is the job of the Congress to keep the U.S. government functioning. If Republicans are willing to shut down the government, then they should be willing to go without their own salaries.
Why is this important?
At midnight, Republican leadership shut down the federal government just to support Trump's reckless and racist agenda, insisting on his unpopular and wasteful border wall and refusing to vote on the bipartisan and popular Dream Act. Republicans have been funding the government a month at a time rather than coming up with real solutions to children's health, protections for Dreamers, relief for Puerto Rico, funding for community health centers, and more.
This could be the first time in history there's been a government shutdown when one party has controlled both houses of Congress and the White House—and the result will hurt tens of millions of Americans, from furloughed federal employees to all of us who use federal services and programs. If Republicans are willing to shut down the government, then they should be willing to go without their own salaries.