Ending Government Shutdowns- Permanently

By Garrett Leeds
Published 1/12/2019

Recently, Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) introduced S-104 the End Government Shutdowns Act as he has done every year since being elected to the Senate in 2010. While the text of this Congress’ version of the act is not at this point in time available on the Senate’s website, it is being described as the same bill proposed last year, which would provide that if Congress fails to pass appropriations bills, the funding would continue with the provisions that after 120 days of not having a new funding bill funding would be reduced by 1% and then funding would be reduced again by 1% every 90 days thereafter until a new appropriations bill is passed. While this is a good start, it does not go far enough.

What principles should be applied in this situation? Congress should do their job, and there should be consequences if they do not. Employees should not be punished for the actions, or in this case inaction, of their employer, and we should make not passing appropriations bills more undesirable.

With these principles in mind, the following is proposed:

1. Budgeting could be done on a bi-annual basis. In other words, for the 116^th Congress (2019-2020) the budget resolutions passed before the end of the fiscal year in October 2019 would be for the two year budget cycle lasting from October 2019 to October 2021. If there was a significant change in the economy, or another significant factor such as a war, the budget could be adjusted, but working off a two year budget plan would reduce the opportunities for the appropriations to run out by half.
2. If Congress does not pass a budget, the budget reductions should be more significant, in order to encourage the budget to be passed as quickly as possible. If the budget is not passed, the automatic continuing budget is cut immediately 5% across the board once the previous budget expires. Another 1% across the board budget cut would then be made on the first of each successive month unless the new budget is passed.
3. Employees should not be made to suffer because Congress has not passed a budget. The budget cuts would be required to come from program costs other than wages and salaries. Even if employees were not working because their program or department was considered non-essential, they would still receive a check for the work they would have done based on the last pay period prior to the budget expiring. Hours paid as sick or vacation time would be taken into consideration as hours worked during the last pay period for the purposes of figuring pay during the expired budget period.
4. The President and Members of Congress themselves should be the only ones to have their salaries impacted during the expired budget period. Until a new budget is signed into law, Congress and the President should receive a salary equivalent to a 40 hour workweek paid at the Federal Minimum Wage. Any pension plan payments automatically made on behalf of the members of Congress or the President would be made according to this reduced wage. Health insurance and other benefits would continue as normal.
5. If an expired budget period lasted more than 6 months, Congressional leaders would be ineligible for re-election to Congress. Should this be deemed unconstitutional, then they would instead be prohibited from holding a leadership position in the future.

Realistically, would this proposal ever make it into law? Not likely. However, if it did, we likely would never see another shutdown again.

Garrett Leeds is the founder of the Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness Project