'Fix Congress Now' rallies around Cooper's 'No Budget, No Pay Act'

The fledgling “Fix Congress Now” caucus has found their first legislative cause to rally around: Rep. Jim Cooper’s (D-Tenn.)“No Budget, No Pay Act.”



Cooper’s bill stipulates that members wouldn’t get paid, even retroactively, if Congress doesn’t pass a budget by October 1st. The group has been meeting regularly to figure out their agenda and this is their first official piece of work together.



“If you don’t do your work, you don’t get paid. Nothing is more elemental than that,” Cooper said at a press conference announcing the effort. “We’ll have engaged the most powerful lobbyists on earth to get it done, too: namely our spouses. They have a strong interest in us getting paid.”



The caucus was started by two freshmen Republicans, Reps. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) and Reid Ribble (R. Wisc.), and they brought on Cooper and Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) as cofounders to make the effort bipartisan.



“You have to take away the one thing every member of congress really wants, and that’s their paycheck at the end of every month,” said Ribble. “You take it away until they get their job done and I think you would see miraculously bipartisan work to get something done.”



In a deeply divided House months before an election it’s unlikely the legislation, or any real congressional reforms, could pass. But the bill has 48 cosponsors in the House and they are pushing for it to get a hearing.



“If we can show a greater number of co-sponsors leadership will have to pay attention,” Cooper said. “It’s no secret this is not popular with leadership. But they want to be popular with members…Any other job in the world, you don’t do your job you don’t get paid. Congress shouldn’t be any different.