Rep. Gaetz requests his pay to be withheld during government shutdown

Rep. Matt Gaetz said Tuesday that he doesn’t want to be paid during a government shutdown.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the House’s Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor, the Florida Republican requested that his pay be withheld until the government has been funded.

“It is my understanding that pursuant to the Constitution, members of Congress will continue to receive their pay during a lapse in appropriations. Therefore, I am requesting that in the case of a lapse of appropriations beginning at 12:00 a.m. on October 1, 2023, my pay be withheld until legislation has taken effect to end such lapse in appropriations in its entirety,” the letter said.

Mr. Gaetz has been very vocal about pushing for Speaker Kevin McCarthy to send single-subject spending bills to the House floor to be voted on with open amendments to avoid a shutdown.

Mr. Gaetz, along with a small number of hardline conservatives, have caused multiple funding bills to fail over their demands for more GOP priorities to be added. Any stopgap measure that could be used to keep the government going past its shutdown date of Sunday has been stonewalled by the Florida congressman and other conservatives.

Mr. McCarthy said a government shutdown would not look good for Republicans and could cause them to lose oversight on the impeachment inquiry of President Biden.

“If you’re saying I’m standing in the way of all the Republican wins, I’d love you to enumerate them,” Mr. Gaetz said to Maria Bartiromo on her Fox News show Sunday. “If the Department of Labor and Education have to shut down for a few days as we get their appropriations in line, that’s certainly not something that is optimal, but I think it’s better than continuing on the path that we are to America’s financial ruin.”