(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
What if we could make Congress actually pay for its hijinks? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-09-28
A thought occurred to me while I was defending John Fetterman on a different site, and I’d like to run it by the DK community to see if it has legs.
Ever since this fiasco of a looming government shutdown began to become a real possibility, people have been calling for members of Congress to have their salaries cut, if it happens.
Unfortunately, that would be illegal, because of the 27th Amendment, which explicitly states that any changes in pay for Senators and Representatives cannot take effect until the next election following the passage of any such changes, either up or down.
When it was finally ratified in 1991, it was a well-meaning and long-overdue effort to prevent members of Congress from raising their own pay. They still can give themselves pay raises, but they’ll either have to be re-elected (for Representives) or still be in office (for Senators) to be able to take advantage of it.
What I’m proposing is a little tweak to the 27th Amendment. There's actual precedence for this: the 21st Amendment was ratified to repeal the 18th Amendment, which led to the end Prohibition.
However, I'm not suggesting we go anywhere near that far - the 27th Amendment serves a good pupose, under a functioning Congress.
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.
That’s the text of the 27th Amendment, and what I’m proposing is a tweak that would provide an exception to the varying of compensation in the event of a government shutdown, in which the compensation of Senators and Representatives shall be stopped, as long as government services are suspended.
This wouldn’t affect either the President or members of the federal judiciary — including the Supreme Court — whose compensation is addressed elsewhere, but I believe it would force the hand of the Freedumb Caucus and other far-right political terrorists lurking in the halls of Congress.
I know it doesn’t help now and that it would take an awful lot of work to first get it out of Congress. That would require it to be introduced in either the House or the Senate, and then receive a two-thirds vote in each chamber.
Following that, it would be sent to the legislatures of all 50 states, with approval from three-fourths of them (currently 38 states) for it to be ratified.
Since IANAL, I really don’t feel qualified to write in that tweak in legalese, so first off, does it have legs — perhaps following the next election — and if so, what should be language of that tweak be?
I’ve said my piece, so please feel free to have at it.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/28/2196101/-What-if-we-could-make-Congress-actually-pay-for-its-hijinks
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
