I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 518
To withhold the pay of Members of Congress in certain cases, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY16, 2025
Mr. L
ALOTAintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on House Administration
A BILL
To withhold the pay of Members of Congress in certain
cases, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Troops Before Politi-4
cians Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. WITHHOLDING OF PAY OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS 6
IN CERTAIN CASES. 7
(a) H
OLDINGSALARIES INESCROW.—If on any day 8
during a pay period members of the Armed Forces, includ-9
ing the reserve components thereof, who perform active 10
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service during such period are not receiving amounts of 1
pay due to such members, including as a result of a lapse 2
in appropriations for a fiscal year, the payroll adminis-3
trator of a House of Congress shall— 4
(1) withhold the payments otherwise required to 5
be made during the period for the compensation of 6
each Member of Congress who serves in that House 7
of Congress; and 8
(2) deposit in an escrow account all amounts 9
withheld under paragraph (1). 10
(b) R
ELEASE OFAMOUNTSHELD INESCROW.— 11
(1) R
ELEASE.—The payroll administrator of a 12
House of Congress shall release for payments to 13
Members of that House of Congress any amounts in 14
any escrow account under this subsection as soon as 15
practicable after the date that the lapse in pay de-16
scribed in subsection (a) terminates. 17
(2) S
PECIAL RULE FOR ONE HUNDRED NINE -18
TEENTH CONGRESS .—In order to ensure that this 19
section is carried out in a manner that shall not 20
vary the compensation of Senators or Representa-21
tives in violation of the twenty-seventh article of 22
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, 23
the payroll administrator of a House of Congress 24
shall release for payments to Members of that House 25
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of Congress any amounts remaining in any escrow 1
account under this subsection on the last day of the 2
One Hundred Nineteenth Congress. 3
(c) R
OLE OFSECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.—The 4
Secretary of the Treasury shall provide the payroll admin-5
istrators of the Houses of Congress with such assistance 6
as may be necessary to enable the payroll administrators 7
to carry out this Act. 8
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 9
(1) the terms ‘‘active service’’ and ‘‘Armed 10
Forces’’ have the meanings given such terms in sec-11
tion 101 of title 10, United States Code; 12
(2) the term ‘‘Member of Congress’’ means an 13
individual serving in a position under subparagraph 14
(A), (B), or (C) of section 601(a) of the Legislative 15
Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 4501); 16
(3) the ‘‘payroll administrator’’ of a House of 17
Congress means— 18
(A) in the case of the House of Represent-19
atives, the Chief Administrative Officer of the 20
House of Representatives, or an employee of 21
the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer 22
who is designated by the Chief Administrative 23
Officer to carry out this Act; and 24
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(B) in the case of the Senate, the Sec-1
retary of the Senate, or an employee of the Of-2
fice of the Secretary of the Senate who is des-3
ignated by the Secretary to carry out this Act; 4
and 5
(4) the term ‘‘reserve components’’ means the 6
components named in section 10101 of title 10, 7
United States Code. 8
Æ
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