Senators adopt resolution to withhold their own pay during government shutdowns
The U.S. Capitol Building dome, on May 12, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Senators adopted a resolution by unanimous consent on Thursday to withhold their own pay during government shutdowns.
The legislation, which won’t take effect until after the November 2026 election, instructs the secretary of the Senate to place senators’ paychecks on hold during the duration of any future federal government shutdowns.
Those payments would be released to lawmakers only after the government reopens.
The Senate resolution does not need to be passed by the House or signed by President Donald Trump. While multiple similar House bills have been introduced, it’s unclear if legislation in the lower chamber will pass.
The measure in the Senate was introduced by Republican John Kennedy and advanced in a unanimous 99-0 vote on Wednesday.
“Take your brain with you, because this is about shared sacrifice. This is about putting our money where our mouth is,” Sen. Kennedy said on the Senate floor ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
Kennedy’s resolution comes after federal workers faced a historic 43-day government shutdown late last year caused by a deadlock between parties over Affordable Care Act subsidies.
During that time, approximately 670,000 federal workers were furloughed, 60,000 workers outside the federal government lost their jobs and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients lost out on benefits all while members of Congress continued to get paid — highlighting the disparity of financial pain endured by members of Congress and the people they serve.
Calls for withholding pay from members of Congress continued to grow this year during the record 75-day partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Transportation Security Administration agents, Coast Guard members and other department employees went without pay as a stalemate played out on Capitol Hill over immigration enforcement funding and oversight reforms.
The US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, April 20, 2026. House Republicans will send their first funding bills for the next fiscal year to the floor this week, while the Senate GOP plots a blueprint for patching up missing money for the current one. (Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The bipartisan House Ethics Committee on Monday released a rare statement encouraging anyone who may have experienced sexual misconduct by a House member or staffer to contact them, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights or the Office of Employee Advocacy.
“There should be zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, harassment, or discrimination in the halls of Congress, or in any employment setting,” the committee said in a lengthy statement.
“The greatest hurdle the Committee faces in evaluating allegations of sexual misconduct is in convincing the most vulnerable witnesses to share their stories,” the statement read. “Accordingly, the Committee’s practice has been to release only the information that is necessary to hold Members accountable for misconduct and address public reporting that impacts the integrity of the House.”
The statement comes after allegations of sexual misconduct led to the resignations of California Democrat Eric Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzales last week.
Gonzales and Swalwell were about to face efforts by their colleagues to have them expelled from the House. The House Ethics Committee had announced investigations into both men, which ended when they resigned.
Gonzales dropped his reelection bid earlier this year after admitting to a relationship with a staffer who later died by suicide. Gonzales said he “made a mistake” and “had a lapse in judgement.”
Swalwell suspended his campaign for governor of California amid the accusations against him, including allegations of sexual assault, which he’s denied. Swalwell’s attorney, Sara Azari, last week said the allegations are “false.”
The committee said that since 2017, it has initiated investigations in 20 matters involving sexual misconduct by a lawmaker.
“The Committee has also investigated several Members for their handling of allegations of sexual misconduct by their senior staff,” the statement read.
In its history, the committee has conducted 28 sexual misconduct investigations. Several members who were being investigated resigned and even some were cleared.
The panel noted that it does not handle sexual harassment lawsuits or have “any involvement in settlements of such claims.”
“The Committee has taken the position that conduct that falls short of legal definitions of sexual harassment or assault under federal or state statutes can still be a violation of the Code of Official Conduct, which imposes a higher standard on Members of the House,” the statement read. “The Committee has also consistently publicly announced its investigations into publicly reported allegations of sexual misconduct and has announced any findings in those matters.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event on advancing health care affordability in the Oval Office of the White House on April 23. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump, responding to the arrest of an American soldier for allegedly betting on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, said the world “has become somewhat of a casino.”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday he was unaware of the arrest of Gannon Ken Van Dyke, which was first reported by ABC News, but that he’d “look into it.”
Federal investigators said Van Dyke bet more than $33,000 on the prediction market Polymarket just days before President Trump announced Maduro’s capture by U.S. special forces in early January. In total, Van Dyke’s series of bets won more than $409,000, the Justice Department said on Thursday.
Trump was asked on Thursday if he was concerned about online prediction markets, through which bets are regularly placed on geopolitical events, such as the war in Iran, and the potential for insider trading.
“Well, you know, the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino,” Trump responded. “And you look at what’s going on all over the world, in Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things. I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it conceptually, but it is what it is.”
“No, I think that I’m not happy with any of that stuff,” the president continued. “But they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It’s a crazy world. It’s a much different world than it was.”
One of Trump’s namesake companies, Trump Media and Technology Group, announced last year that it would launch a prediction betting marketplace called Truth Predict. The White House has said all of President Trump’s assets, including his majority stake in Trump Media and Technology Group, are being held in a trust controlled by his sons.
Polymarket has cultivated close ties to the Trump family, announcing last August that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., would join its advisory board. Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, also invested in Polymarket.
ABC News on Friday reached out to the White House for comment on Truth Predict and Trump Jr.’s involvement in Polymarket.
Polymarket on Thursday said they referred Van Dyke’s suspicious trades to the Justice Department and cooperated with its investigation. “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works,” their statement said.
Van Dyke, who was involved in Maduro’s capture, was charged with unlawful use of confidential information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud and wire fraud.
He appeared in court on Friday and was expected to be released on $250,000 bond. He is set to make another court appearance on April 28 in Manhattan federal court, where the complaint was filed.
On Thursday, Trump appeared to compare Van Dyke’s arrest to the betting scandal baseball great Pete Rose faced.
“That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Rose, who died in 2024, was a Cincinnati Reds star and later the team’s manager who received a lifetime ban from the sport after betting on games, including Reds games.
“Pete Rose they kept him out of the hall of fame because he bet on his own team,” Trump said on Thursday. “Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team.”
There are already two Republicans who are calling for a pardon for Van Dyke.
“I don’t agree with what he did and he should be required to disgorge all the profits however, unless the DOJ plans on doing Congress next, this is not justice,” Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna wrote on X.
ABC News’ Lucien Bruggeman, Peter Charalambous and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters and members of the media at Mar-a-Lago on February 1, 2026 in Palm Beach, Florida.(Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Democrat Emily Gregory won the Florida House District 87 special election, according to The Associated Press, flipping the district that includes President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
In the Tuesday evening upset victory, Gregory was reported to have defeated Trump-endorsed Republican Jon Maples by about 2.4 percentage points, according to the AP.
The Democrat’s victory came after the president, who had endorsed Maples, himself cast a mail-in ballot, according to public records, despite his years-long criticism of voting by mail.
He turned to his social media platform on Monday to encourage voters to support Maples, calling the statehouse race a “very important” special election and emphasizing its location in Palm Beach County, where he spends much of his winter and just visited this past weekend.
“Jon is a very successful Businessman and Civic Leader, who is known and loved, and also endorsed by so many of my Palm Beach County friends,” the president added.
Democrats were celebrating the flip as a major accomplishment leading into the midterms, while also touting the symbolic significance of a victory on the president’s home turf.
“Mar-a-Lago just flipped red to blue, which should have Republicans sweating the midterms,” Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “A Trump +11 district in his own backyard shouldn’t be in play for Democrats, but tonight proves Republicans are vulnerable everywhere.”
Williams also projected a positive outlook heading into the midterms, saying “If Mar-a-Lago is vulnerable, imagine what’s possible this November.”
“This victory reiterates an undeniable trend in Florida: with year round organizing and infrastructure investment, Democrats can run and win anywhere–including Donald Trump’s backyard,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement.
Gregory, who is a small business owner and public health professional, told MS Now on Tuesday night that she still felt “pretty shocked” by the victory and that she didn’t think “much” about the president being one of her constituents.
Trump is “one of 115,000 registered voters in district 87,” she said. “My opponent made, you know, him forefront in his campaign. And I focused more on the voters in district 87, you know, what everybody needs. What all of us will do better with … lower property insurance, with expanded healthcare, and with strong public schools.”
