# Plain Language Summary: No Pay Until Peace Act

This bill would reduce the salaries of members of Congress whenever a mass shooting occurs in the United States. Specifically, for every month in a year during which a mass shooting happens, Congress members would lose one month's worth of their salary. So if three mass shootings occurred in a single year, members would collectively lose three months of pay. The bill defines a mass shooting as an incident where four or more people are killed by firearms in a single event.

The practical effect is that Congress members would face financial consequences tied to mass shooting incidents occurring on their watch. If the bill had been in effect during a year with multiple mass shootings, senators and representatives would see their annual pay reduced accordingly. For example, a member earning $174,000 per year would lose roughly $14,500 for each month a mass shooting occurred. The intention appears to be creating financial incentive for Congress to pass gun violence prevention legislation, since members would directly experience a financial penalty each time a qualifying incident happens.

There's an important constitutional wrinkle built into the bill. The Constitution's 27th Amendment prohibits Congress from changing its own pay during the current term. To work around this, the bill includes a temporary provision for the current Congress at the time it was introduced: instead of immediately reducing pay, the government would hold members' salaries in an escrow account (essentially freezing the money) whenever a mass shooting occurs, then release all the held funds at the end of that Congressional session. Starting with future Congresses, the permanent pay reduction would take effect immediately after the next general election in November 2022.

No Pay Until Peace Act

Cleaver, Emanuel

No Pay Until Peace Act This bill eliminates one month of a Member of Congress's pay for each month during which a mass shooting (four or more deaths in a single incident by the use of a firearm) occurs.