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6 Virginia congressional members reject pay during shutdown

Posted at 6:00 AM, Jan 09, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-09 06:01:19-05

WASHINGTON – Five members of Congress that represent Virginia have rejected pay while the country is in the midst of a partial government shutdown.

According to CNN, Jennifer Wexton (D), Denver Riggleman (R), Abigail Spanberger (D), Rep. Elaine Luria (D), Rep. Rob Wittman (R) and Sen. Mark Warner (D) are foregoing pay during the shutdown.

The five from Virginia are part of a total of 60 congressional lawmakers that are rejecting pay during the shutdown. The bipartisan pay reject includes 13 senators and 51 representatives.

Fourteen representatives passing on pay – including three from Virginia – are newly elected and were sworn in this year.

Several members of Congress have also pushed legislation that would penalize members for allowing a shutdown to occur. Rep. Kurt Schrader, an Oregon Democrat, introduced a bill in 2017 that would automatically dock members’ pay during government shutdowns, and Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, introduced a constitutional amendment the day before the government shut down that would ban them from being paid.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Illinois, one of seven House Republicans who voted to reopen the federal government, urged all members to join him in declining his paycheck.

“Everybody ought to follow the lead that several of us have already set: Don’t get paid,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday. “If you’re in Congress, don’t just delay your pay — forfeit it, write a check back to the US Treasury. Then you’ll feel the pain of these federal workers.”

Here are the members of Congress who won’t receive their paychecks during the shutdown:

House of Representatives

Senators

  • Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) (donating to West Virginia food banks)
  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) (donating to refugee group HIAS)
  • Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) (donating to Hawaiian food banks)
  • Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) (donating to Nevada charity)
  • Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) (donating to unspecified charity)
  • Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) (donating to The Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh)
  • Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana) (donating to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation)
  • Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania)
  • Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana)
  • Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) (donating to Homes For The Brave)
  • Sen. Jacky Rosen (new, D-Nevada) (donating to domestic violence survivor programs in Nevada)
  • Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minnesota) (donating to Advocates for Human Rights)
  • Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) (donating to charity, likely the North Dakota National Guard Foundation and the United Way’s Emergency Homeless Shelter in Bismarck)