The United States Capitol Building and the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. at sunset on October 14, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – Some members of Congress are asking for their pay to be withheld during the government shutdown, while federal workers on Friday did not receive their first full paycheck since many workplaces closed on Oct. 1.
With no movement toward an agreement to end the shutdown, the House took an extended break from Capitol Hill, the Senate left for its usual long weekend, and President Donald Trump prepared to travel to China, where he will likely focus much more on foreign policy and tariffs than on the funding lapse.
Unlike 2 million civilian federal employees and thousands of legislative branch employees, the president, lawmakers and federal judges receive regular paychecks during government shutdowns. Members of Congress earn $174,000 a year, and leaders earn more.
Active-duty military members also typically do not receive paychecks, but the Department of Defense does $8 billion was reprogrammed earlier this month to avoid missing out on payments to U.S. troops. It is unclear whether the Pentagon will be able to do this again before the Oct. 31 payroll deadline and whether it will have enough money left to cover those payrolls.
Pay for the Congress
Unlike most federal employees, members of Congress have the option of receiving a salary as usual, donating their salaries to charity, paying back money to the Treasury, or having their paychecks withheld during the suspension.
Gabe Amo, Democratic Rep. Rhode Island sent a letter On Thursday evening, Chamber Chief Administrative Officer Catherine L. Szpindor confirmed that Chamber members’ salaries may be withheld until funding expires.
Szpindor wrote that legal requirements, including the 27th Amendment, entitle members of Congress to pay and that any legislator whose paycheck was withheld during the shutdown could request its payment at any time. Szpindor did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for Ohio GOP Sen. Jon Husted said the Senate finance official told their office that while senators must be paid, officials could withhold checks at his request until the shutdown ends.
The Senate disbursement office will continue to reduce the check, but Husted will not collect it until Congress funds the government, a spokesman said.
Husted does not believe members of Congress should be paid on time if other federal employees cannot do so, the spokesman added.
Another Senate staffer speaking on the issue told States Newsroom that another senator’s salary was moved from direct deposit to physical pay so that it could be held by the paying office at the senator’s request during the suspension period.
Members of Congress who have asked for their salaries to be withheld include Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, Florida Republican Kat Cammack, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Andy Kim, Oklahoma Republican Stephanie Bice and Oregon Republican Janelle Bynum.
Spokespeople for Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., did not respond to a request for comment on whether their salaries were being withheld during the shutdown. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said his pay was withheld.
Can MPs’ salaries be legally deducted?
Over the years, Congress has voted several times to officially withhold member salaries during the suspension of operations, but none of these laws have ever become law. Due to funding lapses in the past, questions have been raised as to whether payments to members can legally be withheld.
Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office he wrote in a letter to Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst just before the shutdown began that membership fees “are required by the Constitution and are considered mandatory expenses.”
“In this way, members of Congress would continue to be paid if the discretionary appropriations expire,” CBO Director Phillip L. Swagel wrote.
This assessment is in favor of report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, updated in August, which found that “members of Congress continue to be paid when appropriations lapse for a number of reasons.”
Lawmakers’ salaries “have been provided through permanent and mandatory measures since 1981,” the report said.
The United States Constitution in Article I, Section 6, Clause 1 states that: “Senators and Representatives shall receive compensation for their services, as may be prescribed by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.”
And the 27th Amendment to the Constitution says: “No law altering the compensation for the services of senators and representatives shall come into force until the representatives have been elected.”
The CRS report cites a Government Accountability Office policy on federal appropriations law that reads: “The compensation of a member of Congress is established by statute and therefore may not be waived without specific statutory authority.”
However, the report also noted that there is nothing to prevent a member of Congress from accepting a salary and then remitting all or part of it back to the treasury.
No options and no payouts to the feds
Those working for members of Congress, or those working in departments and agencies throughout the executive branch, do not have the same choice.
They must remain without their paychecks until Congress and the president negotiate an agreement to fund the government and end the shutdown.
Any employee who manages matters of national security or the protection of life or property is considered exempt and continues to work until the suspension ends. Any federal employee who does not fall into this category is placed on furlough.
Senate he was unable to pay advances on several bills Thursday, which would keep some federal workers and contractors paid during the shutdown.
In the absence of recent congressional action, both exempt and nonexempt federal workers are scheduled to receive back pay under the 2019 law when the government reopens, although Trump and administration officials raised doubts depending on whether they do so in the case of executive branch employees.
Guidance from the House Committee on Administration says all legislative branch employees will receive back pay once the funding bill becomes law.
“Neither essential workers nor furloughed workers are entitled to compensation if government funding ends” – the report says. “Federal law statutorily requires retroactive pay for furloughed and essential workers after the lapse in government funding.”
