H.R. 5738 — No Budget, No Pay Act

This section establishes definitions for terms used in the Act. Those terms are (1) Budget and Appropriations Chairs, meaning the House Budget and Appropriations Chairs and the Senate Budget and Appropriations Chairs; (2) House Budget and Appropriations Chairs, meaning the chair of the House Committee on the Budget and the chair of the House Committee on Appropriations; (3) Member of Congress, meaning Senators, Representatives, Delegates to the House, and the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico, excluding the Vice President; and (4) Senate Budget and Appropriations Chairs, meaning the chair of the Senate Committee on the Budget and the chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

This section requires both Houses of Congress, not later than October 1 of each fiscal year, to (1) approve a concurrent resolution on the budget for that fiscal year (i.e., changing the deadline from April 15 under current law (2 U.S.C. 632(a))); and (2) pass all regular appropriations bills for that fiscal year. (Thus, Congress must complete both the annual budget resolution—which sets topline levels for revenues, spending, deficits, debt, and major functional categories—and the 12 regular appropriations bills before the fiscal year begins, potentially avoiding continuing resolutions.)

This section prohibits the appropriation or availability of funds from the U.S. Treasury for the pay of any Member of Congress during any period in which Congress is not in compliance with section 3, as determined by the Budget and Appropriations Chairs under section 5. The section further bars retroactive pay to Members of Congress for any such period of noncompliance.

This section establishes annual determination procedures by the Budget and Appropriations Committee chairs in each chamber on October 1 of each fiscal year as follows: (1) in the Senate, whether Congress complies with section 3 for that fiscal year, whether Senators may not be paid under section 4, and the period of days following October 1 for any withholding, with certification provided to the Secretary of the Senate upon request; and (2) in the House of Representatives, parallel determinations regarding Members of the House, with certification provided to the Chief Administrative Officer of the House upon request.