The Senate recently agreed not to get paid during a federal government shutdown. Missing paychecks would be a big deal for most of us.
The median senator is worth $4.4 million, and many are far richer. Holding back their paychecks might help, but there are more effective ways to motivate Congress to get its work done.
For example, members are perfectly equal in their time. That’s the logic behind the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act.
If a budget year starts on Oct. 1 without all spending bills in law, members of Congress and the White House budget office are stuck in D.C. Congress has daily votes on appropriations and little ability to do anything else. Getting home in the month before an election is a powerful motivator.
The legislation’s other big idea: no disruptions to government services, from national parks to airport security. Spending continues at prior levels until new bills are done.
More important, it eliminates the mirage of shutdown leverage. Shutdown brinksmanship has repeatedly failed to achieve its stated goals, but it routinely creates disruption and dysfunction. Keeping government services running while requiring Congress to stay in Washington until the work is done is popular: 76 percent favor it, and only 6 percent oppose.
Shutdowns don’t just disrupt government services. They distort how Congress makes spending decisions. Shutdown risk pushes leaders to cook up giant omnibus bills and ram them through before members have a chance to read them. Forget about trying to make it better.
Being rubber-stamped instead of represented is frustrating. Usually, however, members swallow hard and vote yes just to avoid a shutdown. Ironically, belief in shutdown leverage may make backdoor omnibus bills more likely.
When shutdowns are off the table, new legislation must improve on the status quo. That means giving members a real chance to shape legislation rather than simply voting on it. These stronger relationships also support a more cohesive legislature that can be a check and balance when needed. A Congress that is more engaged in budgeting is also better positioned to challenge the executive branch — or to proactively partner with it — rather than reacting to it.
Preventing shutdowns can also help Congress reduce budget bloat. Special-interest complaints matter more when members have little buy-in. Letting waste fester reduces complaints, but it also adds to the federal government’s dangerous debt burden. Broad, earned support for legislation makes it harder for outside complaints to preserve wasteful spending.
Shutdown politics keep Congress focused on only a fraction of federal spending while the rest runs on autopilot. That robs Americans of representation and better results. Helping appropriations succeed can prompt Congress to look more closely at autopilot activities, especially by putting everything into each year’s regular order.
In addition, finishing appropriations earlier creates an opportunity for Congress to revisit and rescind unnecessary spending before agencies rush to spend remaining funds at year-end. Once those dollars are spent, Congress is less likely to reconsider whether they should have been spent at all.
Preventing shutdowns can help Congress better serve the people. Locking Congress in D.C. until they finish budgeting while protecting Americans from disruption replaces the mirage of shutdown leverage and backroom deals with a bottom-up process where all members can contribute to our shared destiny. It’s time.
Kurt Couchman is a senior fellow in fiscal policy at Americans for Prosperity and the author of “Fiscal Democracy in America: How a Balanced Budget Amendment Can Restore Sound Governance.” He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
