{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://norman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3249", "Congressman Norman Reintroduces Constitutional Amendment to Prohibit Member Pay During a Government Shutdown", "2025-09-30", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "House", "SC", "Ralph Norman", "N000190", "norman.house.gov", "norman", "https://norman.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Congressman Ralph Norman has reintroduced a constitutional amendment that would bar Members of Congress from receiving any compensation during a government shutdown.\n\nFor decades, Congress has failed to pass its appropriations bills by the September 30 deadline, triggering repeated shutdowns. Yet during these shutdowns, Members of Congress continue to receive pay, while service members, federal workers, and essential employees suffer.\n\nUnder the amendment, if Congress allows the government to shut down, disrupting critical services, then all Members would forfeit their pay, without later backpay. This reform holds leadership accountable and gives added urgency to funding responsibly.\n\n\u201cMembers of Congress have a constitutional duty to fund the government\u2019s essential functions,\u201d said Congressman Norman. \u201cIf Congress fails to meet that obligation, we should not expect taxpayers to continue paying us for inaction. No one else in America would get paid for failing to fulfill their duties\u2014Congress should face the same principle.\u201d\n\nCongressman Norman also stressed that the impending shutdown is avoidable, but Democrats in Washington are choosing to play politics rather than put the American people first. House Republicans did their part passing a clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded while long-term negotiations continue.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T15:07:37Z"]], "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://norman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3249"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8082757703959942, "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"}