To: The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate
Performance Pay and Benefits for Congress
We the people of the United States hereby petition the US Congress to create a law mandating the performance of Congressional personnel. If Congress fails to pass the Federal budget by September 30th of each year, each Senator and Representative shall have their pay and benefits reduced by 10% for each month beyond the end of the fiscal year until the budget passes and is signed into law by the President. If the Senator or Representative fails to pass a budget after ten months, then that Senator or Representative shall make payments to the US treasury in the amount of 10% of their normal pay and value of their benefits as liquidated damages for having failed to properly fulfill their duties to their Country.
The only way for a Senator or Congressman to regain their pay and benefits is to hold a special election in their respective Districts no more than once a year. The constituents may vote yea or nay for their Senator or Representative to regain their pay. The pay shall be restored by the percentage of yea votes divided by the total number of votes. Fifty perecent yea votes will restore fifty percent of the pay and benefits for that Senator or Representative. Two years of consecutive zero pay status is cause for automatic dismissal of the elected official and a special election will be held to select their replacement.
Why is this important?
Congress has repeatedly given themselves raises over the past twenty years when most of us have seen a steady erosion in pay and benefits. One of Congress's jobs is to ammend and approve the President's budget- something they have repeatedly failed to do in a timely fashion for years. This petition is to link Congressional pay and benefits to their performance while in Congress.