Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor Endorse No Labels Proposal "No Budget, No Pay"

In the wake of No Labels’ historic Meeting to Make America Work! of 1,300 citizen problem solvers and leaders in New York City last week, Washington has torn a page out of the No Labels Make Congress Work! action plan and announced support for a No Budget, No Pay concept that would dock pay for members of Congress if the Senate can’t pass a budget.

 

In December of 2011, No Labels introduced the No Budget, No Pay Act in the House with Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) and with Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) in the Senate. It had over 90 co-sponsors in the 112th Congress, and received a hearing in the Senate in March of 2012. This bill has been pushed by No Labels’ hundreds of thousands of grassroots supporters -- Democrats, Republicans and everything in between -- with 88 percent approval ratings from voters, who want more accountability in Washington.

 

“No Budget, No Pay is a common-sense idea that should gain the support of Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate -- because it’s not one party or the other that needs a budget, it’s America that needs a budget,” says No Labels Co-Founder Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

 

"The House GOP leadership has evidently decided to endorse the No Budget, No Pay concept,” No Labels Co-Founder and former Comptroller General of the United States Dave Walker says. “This is a major step forward to helping ensure that the Congress passes a budget and is held accountable if it fails to do so."