No Budget? No Pay!

In real life when an employee doesn’t do their job there are financial repercussions.  When a member of Congress (employed and paid for by taxpayers) doesn’t do their job (such as passing a budget or appropriations bills on time) they go on recess and ask to be re-elected to the job they failed to do.  If Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) has his way, there may be real financial consequences if members of Congress don’t do the most important part of their job, pass a budget.  Rep. Broun introduced H.R. 3883, the “Budget or Bust Act,” to provide some linkage of job performance to pay.  According to wnd.com, “HR 3883 says in part: ‘If on or before April 1 of any year Congress does not adopt a concurrent resolution on the budget for the fiscal year that begins on October 1 of that year, the Secretary of the Treasury shall deposit all payments otherwise required to be made for the compensation of members of Congress in an escrow account, and shall release such payments to the members only upon the adoption by Congress of a concurrent resolution on the budget for that fiscal year.’”  Last year when Our Generation and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance released “Are Taxpayers Getting Their Money’s Worth? An Analysis of Congressional Compensation,” (read full report here) taxpayers were shocked to find out just how much members of Congress make with a base salary of $174,000 per year ($285,000 per year when benefits are calculated).

Rep. Broun’s legislation may be just another sign that the free non-accountable ride that Congress has been enjoying may soon be over.  Last week the House of Representatives passed legislation that would again freeze congressional and federal employee pay.  The justification for freezing federal civilian pay was bolstered by a Congressional Budget Office report that shows that federal employees enjoy a pay premium that the private sector doesn’t have. Also last week, the Senate passed the STOCK (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) Act, which is aimed at stopping “insider trading” by members and employees of Congress.  Unfortunately, companion legislation, S. 1930, The Earmark Elimination Act proposed by Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) failed.  S. 1930 would have been the last nail in the coffin of earmarks (read previous blog posting here and Sen. McCaskill’s statement here).

Members of Congress are slowly starting to recognize taxpayer frustration with the generous perks and benefits of being a member of Congress.  But, until legislation is passed by both chambers and signed by the President, there is still quite a bit of work to do.  Just think, one of these days Congress may have to actually live by the same rules and regulations that everybody has to live by.