When the federal government shuts down, hundreds of thousands of workers go without a paycheck. The 535 lawmakers who failed to pass the budget are not among them, because the Constitution keeps their pay flowing.
That is one of several things most Americans get wrong about Congress. The basic outline is simple enough, with roughly 435 House members split among the states mostly by population and 100 senators, two per state, but the details are stranger than the civics textbook suggests.
Myth 1: Lawmakers lose their pay during a shutdown
Every year Congress has to agree on a budget for the coming fiscal year. When it cannot, the government shuts down, and federal employees are either furloughed or told to keep working without pay.
It seems fair to assume members of Congress, as federal workers, would miss their checks too. They do not. Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution says senators and representatives “shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.”
The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, adds another layer. Any law changing congressional pay cannot take effect until after the next House election, which stops members from voting themselves a raise without facing voters first, and it also stops them from switching off their own pay mid shutdown.
Bills that would dock future Congresses during a shutdown appear almost every time one looms, but they rarely get further than a press release. Similar constitutional protections keep the president and federal judges paid as well.
Myth 2: No law passes without the president’s signature
Generations of American kids learned how a bill becomes a law from the Schoolhouse Rock! song “I’m Just a Bill,” which first aired in the mid 1970s. The cartoon bill even mentions the veto, joking that by the time Congress votes again he will be very old and very unlikely to become a law.
The real obstacle is votes, not age. Leaving filibusters aside, a bill needs a simple majority in each chamber to reach the president. Overriding a veto raises the bar to two thirds, a supermajority of up to 290 votes in the House and 67 in the Senate, which is why sponsors of a narrowly passed bill often let it die rather than fight.
There is a quieter route as well. Once a bill reaches the president, there are 10 days, not counting Sundays, to sign or veto it, and if the president does neither while Congress is in session, it becomes law automatically.
Richard Nixon used this in June 1970 on a bill extending the Special Milk Program, which paid for milk in schools. He thought too much of the free milk went to children from families who could easily afford it, and he had already signed a separate law giving free and discounted meals, milk included, to children below the poverty line.
Congress and the dairy lobby loved the milk program, so Nixon let the 10 days run out. He said that if he spent the money at all, which he was not required to do, he would steer it into his need based programs, a plan that did not really work out.
Myth 3: Every member lives in or near Washington
How many days Congress meets changes from year to year and differs between the chambers. According to Ballotpedia, from 2001 to 2022 the Senate was in session an average of 168 days a year and the House 151.
Those days are scattered rather than packed into one block, with weekends, odd days and whole weeks off throughout the year. Many members do rent or buy in Washington and fly home on long breaks, but plenty of others make different arrangements:
- The commuters. Joe Biden earned the nickname “Amtrak Joe” by riding the 90 minute train between Delaware and Washington during his 36 years in the Senate, and did not live in the capital until he became vice president.
- The office sleepers. When North Carolina Republican Ted Budd joined the House in 2017, one of his first moves was installing a Murphy bed with a Tempur-Pedic mattress in his office, which he told NPR in 2020 folds away out of sight during the day.
- The couch crowd. Others use cots or office sofas, pack away their bedding early, then shower at the members’ gym before the workday starts.
Not everyone approves. Former California representative Jackie Speier told NPR she would not want to welcome a constituent into what amounted to her bedroom. Mississippi representative Bennie Thompson told the New York Post in 2018 that sleeping in the office means free cable, electricity, cleaning and security with no rent, and called it a heck of a deal paid for by taxpayers.
Myth 4: Congress gets free health insurance
Members of Congress do pay for health coverage, usually through the Affordable Care Act. The government covers more than 70% of the premiums for gold tier plans, and Snopes describes the benefits as very similar to those of an employee at a large company.
What a large company rarely has is a doctor on site. That started in late 1928, after two House members collapsed at work and a third died, and in each case hours passed before a physician arrived from a city hospital. According to the Senate’s own website, sitting members were dying that year at a rate of almost 20 a year.
The House brought in a Navy doctor, George Calver, who began seeing patients in the House Democratic cloakroom. In 1930 his job expanded to cover the Senate, along with two ground floor rooms in the Capitol, some funding and the title of Attending Physician. Today the office handles emergencies for members, their staff, the Supreme Court, official visitors and any tourist who needs help, and members can pay a yearly fee for routine checkups and some tests.
Based on reporting by Mental Floss
By Brian Kessler | History