NO BUDGET NO PAY

On June 19,2014 Dean Heller, U.S. Senator from Nevada filed the "NO BUDGET NO PAY ACT."  It is an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) appropriations bill (Amendment to H.R.4660), which is one of the twelve funding bills that Congress is supposed to pass every year. The amendment calls on Congress to adopt legislation requiring passage of a yearly budget and all twelve appropriations bills each fiscal year in order to receive pay. Illinois citizens work hard for their money, Congress should too.

"A bill such as this would require Congress members to continually take a look at how the federal government is spending YOUR tax dollars.  It would require members of Congress to be more fiscally responsible and more accountable to taxpayers.

The NO BUDGET NO PAY would help members of congress understand how quickly they are taking the nation's debt ceiling higher and higher.  In addition, there are 1000's of proposals and laws which aim to affect federal spending; ensuring that numbers "are on the books," should help Congressmen and women understand more rapidly how their legislation would affect spending - instead of having to "project" future spending based on inconsistent past trends.

In general, Congress should be working harder at balancing the budget and ensure proper balanced spending occurs in Washington.  Sadly, “Congress has only passed spending bills "on time" four times since 1952. The last time Congress passed both a concurrent budget resolution and all required spending bills on time was 1996. (source: Politico - David Walker, February 2012).”

Some view the NO BUDGET NO PAY proposal as unconstitutional, citing the following: "The 27th Amendment: No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened."

However, it is completely "Constitutional."  USA Today (Jesse Rifkin, August 2013) explained the 27th Amendment as such: "The 1992 passage of the 27th Constitutional Amendment requires that any pay adjustment Congress votes for itself would not take effect until after the next election. That way, representatives could not vote themselves a self-serving immediate pay raise and would have to risk that any such vote may benefit successors who may be ideological or political rivals."

The NO BUDGET NO PAY proposal has little chance of passing in the U.S. Senate in 2014, as Harry Reid allows very few laws to come to a vote in the Senate - thus adding to the current gridlock in Congress.  In addition, if passed by the Senate and then the House of Representatives (and signed by the President, of course), the law wouldn't take effect until January 1, 2015.  Having said that, this bill still has its merits.

The Heller Amendment sheds light on the dysfunction in Washington D.C., though it may be entrenched in our history, it doesn't have stay that way.  There is always hope on the horizon, and perhaps coming as soon as this November - as Harry Reid and scores of Senators and House Reps will be up for election.

Clearly posted on my website, www.branniganforcongress.com is the debt clock. As it is shown, our nation currently sits at over $17-trillion 500-billion in federal debt.  We need to elect members to Congress to better represent our needs and spend our hard-earned tax dollars more wisely.