TSA workers are unpaid during shutdown; not so for members of Congress

“These poor people on the front lines — all the TSA officers — for them not to be getting paid a penny,” he said. “But guess who is still receiving their fat paycheck? That’s members of Congress. And to me, that’s criminal.”

There are several bills pending in Congress, including one recently approved in committee in the House, that would prevent lawmakers from being paid for work during government shutdowns. But unless those become law, the Constitution requires that members be paid their full salaries even during shutdowns.

During the full government shutdown last fall, dozens of lawmakers — including U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and Rep. Buddy Carter — announced that they would voluntarily forego their pay or donate it to charity.

This time, Ossoff, D-Atlanta, decided not to forgo his salary during the partial shutdown.

Carter, R-St. Simons Island, initially told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he hadn’t given any thought to whether he should. Two days later, he said that he had decided to again give his pay to a yet-to-be-specified nonprofit.

“Employees are now missing paychecks, like overworked TSA agents and the Coast Guard, including those deployed to the Middle East,” Carter said in a statement. “I’ll be donating my salary to charity for the duration of the shutdown. If they aren’t receiving paychecks, neither should members of Congress.”

Carter blamed the shutdown on Senate Democrats, who have blocked a House-passed bill funding DHS because they want policy changes for immigration enforcement. Despite weeks of negotiations with the White House, no deal has been reached.

Democrats introduced alternative proposals to fund all DHS agencies except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol or to pay TSA workers alone, but Republicans have stood in the way of those measures.

Other members of Georgia’s delegation told the AJC they will continue taking their paychecks, and they don’t feel conflicted about it. These lawmakers said they feel sympathy for Coast Guard, FEMA and TSA workers who are not being paid, but they point the finger at members in the opposing party.

“I think the right posture is for the Democrats to stop playing games with the federal employee salaries,” Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, said.

He said Democrats are catering to a progressive base by shutting down DHS because they want to defund ICE and Border Patrol.

Scott said members of Congress need their salaries, especially if voters want representatives who come from the middle class instead of being represented by people with the type of wealth that allows them to give away their pay.

“More oftentimes than not, when you see someone saying they’re not going to take their salary, it is someone who’s a multimillionaire and their salary doesn’t matter to them anyway,” Scott said.

Both Carter and Ossoff are multimillionaires, according to their most recent financial disclosures.

U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, said shutdowns make him busier than usual.

“During those periods, I work harder than ever before,” he said. “I think I earn my pay.”

Johnston, the Cobb voter, said he is tired of the blame game and wants Congress to buckle down and either end the shutdown or keep working through the two-week recess scheduled to begin on Friday.

“Absolutely none of them go on a spring break until it is solved,” he said. “Also for the good of the country, how about them foregoing their paychecks until those deserving officers of TSA get their paychecks?”