{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://barrett.house.gov/media/press-releases/barrett-defers-pay-democrats-threaten-shut-down-government", "Barrett Defers Pay as Democrats Threaten to Shut Down the Government", "2025-09-30", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "House", "MI", "Tom Barrett", "B001321", "barrett.house.gov", "barrett", "https://barrett.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2014 Today, Congressman Tom Barrett (MI-07) directed the House of Representatives to withhold his pay should a lapse in appropriations result in a shutdown of the federal government at midnight tonight.\n\nBarrett noted that more than 5,000 federal employees live in Michigan\u2019s 7th Congressional District, none of whom would be paid throughout the duration of the shutdown. Additionally, troops and federal law enforcement officers would be forced to put their safety on the line without a paycheck.\n\n\u201cMembers of Congress shouldn\u2019t get paid while our federal employees and troops on the front lines go without,\u201d said Barrett. \u201cIf Democrats shut down the government tonight, I\u2019ll be withholding my pay until we get it back open for the American people. I voted with conviction to keep the government open. It\u2019s time for Senate Democrats to put people before politics and do the same.\u201d\n\nClick here to read Barrett\u2019s full letter to the House\u2019s Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor.\n\nBackground:\n\nGovernment funding expires tonight at midnight. On September 19, Congressman Barrett helped pass a clean continuing resolution (H.R. 5371) that would fund the federal government for seven weeks. It also provides additional resources for the protection of public officials at a time of unprecedented political violence in America. This legislation requires 60 votes to pass in the U.S. Senate, which has allowed Democrats to block it from reaching President Trump\u2019s desk.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://barrett.house.gov/media/press-releases/barrett-defers-pay-democrats-threaten-shut-down-government"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.71347414329648, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}