[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 13, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H1361]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          SEQUESTER SHOULD APPLY TO PAY OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. DeSantis) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeSANTIS. Mr. Speaker, much has been said about sequestration, 
but few have mentioned what bothers me the most about it. The pay of 
Members of Congress is exempted from the sequester. When Members of 
Congress exempt themselves from the operation of the law, it is not 
only unfair, it actually violates a core principle of republican 
government.
  There is no less an authority than James Madison who will back me up 
on this. In The Federalist No. 57, he wrote:

       I will add, as a fifth circumstance in the situation of the 
     House of Representatives, restraining them from oppressive 
     measures, that they can make no law which will not have its 
     full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on 
     the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of 
     the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the 
     rulers and the people together. It creates between them that 
     communion of interests and sympathy of sentiments, of which 
     few governments have furnished examples; but without which 
     every government degenerates into tyranny. If it be asked, 
     what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making 
     legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular 
     class of the society? I answer: the genius of the whole 
     system; the nature of just and constitutional laws; and above 
     all, the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people 
     of America--a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return 
     is nourished by it.

  In the spirit of James Madison, I will be filing legislation to make 
the sequester apply to the pay of Members of Congress at the first 
moment that is constitutionally permissible. Members of this body must 
live under the same rules as everybody else. Our Founding Fathers 
expected it; the American people demand it.

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