© 2024 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
Vote Alert: Reduce accountability in Congress by making federal pay mandatory spending
January 11, 2019
This vote was on the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, a bill that would guarantee back pay for all federal employees at the end of every government shutdown now and in the future.
No one likes government shutdowns. Congress has a responsibility to work together and find compromises that ensure that government is funded, that it stays open, and that federal workers get paid on time for their services. Unfortunately, Congress is run by imperfect men and women, not angels. They can’t always find compromise, and sometimes that means the government must shut down while lawmakers resolve their differences. A consequence of Congress’ inability to compromise is that some federal workers will miss their pay until the government reopens. That is a risk of the job every federal worker takes.
Typically, at the end of a government shutdown, Congress will vote to pay furloughed workers the wages they were due. There is nothing wrong with that, and it ought to be done at the end of every shutdown.
The problem with this legislation is that by guaranteeing pay for federal workers after future government shutdowns, Congress has essentially shifted federal pay from discretionary spending to mandatory spending. This will incentivize Congress to shut down the government in the future because politicians will think, “Federal workers are already taken care of.” The shift to mandatory spending also in effect takes away part of Congress’ constitutional power of the purse, putting spending on autopilot while lawmakers beat their chests on TV and don’t feel an urgent need to reopen government.
Two-thirds of all federal spending is mandatory spending. With a national debt over $21 trillion, Congress should be held accountable for every taxpayer dollar spent. It should not remove the responsibility of voting on federal back pay after causing a government shutdown from elected lawmakers.
The Senate passed this bill by voice vote, so there is no recorded roll call vote.
The House of Representatives passed this bill on January 11, 2019 at 12:10 p.m. ET in a roll call vote of 411 – 7.
To see how your elected officials stack up or other votes that compose the Liberty Score, view our full scorecard here.
Conservative position: NO
House of Representatives*
*Minority party (Republicans) in italics
YEAs — 411
| Adams Aderholt Aguilar Allen Allred Amodei Armstrong Arrington Axne Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Barragán Bass Beatty Bera Bergman Beyer Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (UT) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bost Boyle, Brendan F. Brady Brindisi Brooks (AL) Brooks (IN) Brown (MD) Brownley (CA) Buchanan Buck Budd Burchett Burgess Bustos Butterfield Byrne Calvert Carbajal Cárdenas Carson (IN) Carter (GA) Cartwright Case Casten (IL) Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chabot Cheney Chu, Judy Cicilline Cisneros Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Cline Cloud Clyburn Cohen Cole Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Comer Conaway Connolly Cook Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Cox (CA) Craig Crawford Crenshaw Crist Crow Cuellar Cummings Cunningham Curtis Davids (KS) Davis (CA) Davis, Danny K. Davis, Rodney Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier DesJarlais Deutch Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Duffy Duncan Dunn Emmer Engel Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Estes Evans Ferguson Finkenauer Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fletcher Fortenberry Foster Foxx (NC) Fudge Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Gianforte Gibbs Gohmert Golden Gomez Gonzalez (OH) | Gonzalez (TX) Gooden Gottheimer Graves (GA) Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Green (TX) Grijalva Guest Guthrie Haaland Hagedorn Harder (CA) Harris Hartzler Hastings Hayes Heck Hern, Kevin Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Higgins (NY) Hill (AR) Hill (CA) Himes Holding Hollingsworth Horn, Kendra S. Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Hudson Huffman Huizenga Hunter Hurd (TX) Jackson Lee Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Johnson (TX) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kaptur Katko Keating Kelly (IL) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kennedy Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim Kind King (IA) King (NY) Kinzinger Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster (NH) Kustoff (TN) LaHood LaMalfa Lamb Lamborn Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latta Lawrence Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Lesko Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lewis Lieu, Ted Lipinski Loebsack Lofgren Long Loudermilk Lowenthal Lowey Lucas Luetkemeyer Luján, Ben Ray Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Marchant Marshall Matsui McAdams McBath McCarthy McCaul McClintock McCollum McEachin McGovern McHenry McKinley McNerney Meadows Meeks Meng Meuser Miller Mitchell Moolenaar Mooney (WV) Moore Morelle Moulton Mucarsel-Powell Mullin Murphy Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newhouse Norcross Norman Nunes O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez | Olson Omar Palazzo Pallone Palmer Panetta Pappas Pascrell Pelosi Pence Perlmutter Perry Peters Peterson Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Posey Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Ratcliffe Reed Reschenthaler Rice (NY) Rice (SC) Richmond Riggleman Roby Rodgers (WA) Roe, David P. Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rooney (FL) Rose (NY) Rose, John W. Rouda Rouzer Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Rutherford Ryan Sánchez Sarbanes Scalise Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Schweikert Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Serrano Sewell (AL) Shalala Sherman Sherrill Shimkus Simpson Sires Slotkin Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Smucker Soto Spanberger Spano Speier Stanton Stauber Stefanik Steil Steube Stevens Stewart Stivers Suozzi Swalwell (CA) Takano Taylor Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Thornberry Timmons Tipton Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres Small (NM) Trahan Trone Turner Underwood Upton Van Drew Vargas Veasey Vela Velázquez Visclosky Walberg Walden Walker Walorski Waltz Wasserman Schultz Waters Watkins Watson Coleman Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Welch Wenstrup Westerman Wexton Wild Williams Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Woodall Wright Yarmuth Young Zeldin |
NAYs — 7
| Amash Biggs Gosar | Grothman Massie Roy | Yoho |
NOT VOTING — 16
| Abraham Bucshon Carter (TX) Davidson (OH) Flores Frankel | Gabbard Granger Griffith Jones Lawson (FL) Marino | Mast Payne Sensenbrenner Wagner |
*Minority party (Republicans) in italics
Want to leave a tip?
We answer to you. Help keep our content free of advertisers and big tech censorship by leaving a tip today.
Want to join the conversation?
Already a subscriber?
more stories
Sign up for the Blaze newsletter
By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content that may sometimes include advertisements. You may opt out at any time.
© 2024 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
Get the stories that matter most delivered directly to your inbox.
By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content that may sometimes include advertisements. You may opt out at any time.