October 20, 2025 • 5 mins
Congressman Bill Huizenga joins us to discuss the No Budget No Pay Act - cosponsored by Democrat Colleague Scott Peters.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Remember this government shutdown things started. We talked to Congressman
Bill Heisinga, who so didn't want to paycheck. Well he
teamed up with a Democrat. I don't think anybody should
be getting one. This is West Michigan's Morning New Steve,
Kelly and Kata with Michigan's fourth District Congressman Bill heising
Back on the liveline this morning. Thank you for doing
(00:20):
this this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Very good to be with you, Steve.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
So we're getting week three is underway. Talk to us
a little bit about the no Budget, no Pay Act.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, well again, first and foremost, this is imminently avoidable.
We don't need to be here, but here's where we're at.
And obviously the political games are rearing their ugly head.
So the guy that I'm co sponsoring this with, Scott Peters,
(00:53):
Scott and I are the co chairs of something called
the Bipartisan Fiscal Forum. The FF shows that on purpose,
and we really focus and concentrate on our debt and
our deficit and how are we going to get out
of our third nearly thirty eight trillion dollars in debt
as a nation. But he and I have worked on
(01:13):
a couple of different things. And we looked at this
situation and said, look if TFA and the Coast Guard
and all of our men and women in uniform, and
Board of Patrol and Department of Agriculture and everybody else
isn't getting a paycheck, you know, I mean, why would
why should we? Now, the Constitution says that we cannot
(01:36):
be denied a paycheck as members of Congress, but we
believe that there is a legal way, constitutional way of
saying okay, for the time that you are not funding government,
then those members of Congress, the House, and the Senate
shouldn't get a paycheck either, and we wouldn't get back pay.
(01:59):
So you know, we've got to do something. It's not
trying to be a gimmick. It's really trying to spur
on a conversation that has to be had.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
My eyes were open this weekend. I told everybody. We
took an uber and a young woman was the driver
and she was picking up extra ships. She's got kids,
and though she knows she's going to get a paycheck eventually,
like a lot of Americans, she's living paycheck to paycheck
and that puts an extra strain on her to try
to get healthcare daycare and all that stuff. Do there
(02:29):
are a lot of Americans that aren't necessarily serving in
Congress or the Senate that need these paychecks?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah? Absolutely. And look, I see our friendly TSA people
twice a week, and I actually taught to a group
of them or a couple of them on my way
out to Washington. And the older, longer term folks, they
lived through this, so they know to sock some stuf
(03:00):
up away. But especially those newer, younger TSA agents, they
haven't gone through this. They don't have a savings And
you know, think about our air traffic controllers just on
the transportation side of a loan where you've got TSA,
the air traffic controllers, all of the people that are
the inspectors, all of that. They're all out there working
(03:20):
without without a guaranteed paycheck. And yes, we intend to
make them whole, but there is no guarantee on that.
And look, not everybody has a lot of savings. And
how do you get through a month without a paycheck.
That's it's it's ridiculous. So anyway, you know, we've we've
(03:41):
got to get beyond this. Uh, Chuck Schumer's got to
get over himself. That's personal opinion on this and h
and figure out that the right thing to do is
to move forward and open up the government that then
gets everybody paid. But in the meantime, we've got to
have this conversation about why this is happening and how
we keep it from.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Happening again in Congressman, I appreciate your efforts on this because,
I mean, we haven't seen a lot of movement, as
you know. And the thing is, when you look at
the bigger picture, what's coming up, right, You've got Thanksgiving holiday,
The travel is going to be insane, as it always is.
I mean, it's right around the corner.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Right, yeah, absolutely, And what we're hearing is that conversations
aren't happening at all among the senators. Nobody's going in
and out of the out of the leader's office. No
one is really approaching anybody else with ideas. It's really
(04:38):
up to I think the individual senators at this point,
because look, the House is the House has passed the
bill that would fund government. We've got a couple of
Democrats that have crossed over on the Senate side, but
they cannot reach that sixty vote threshold at this point,
and that's the key. They've got to get there. And frankly,
it takes people like our cen UH to go to
(05:02):
Chuck Schumer and say, look, this has got to end.
We've got to move forward, get government open again, and
then we will start negotiating a lot of these important issues,
whether it's healthcare, whether it's our debt, whether it's defense spending,
all those things. But we've got to have a functioning
government at this point, and we don't have that, and
so it it's it's immensely frustrating right now. So I'm
(05:26):
hoping that people will get over themselves and start moving
ahead and start doing what's right for the American people.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Is Congressman Bill Heisinget, thanks for your time again today.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Hey, good to be with you guys. So hopefully next
time we talk it'll be a little better news.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
But we'll see
Remember this government shutdown things started. We talked to Congressman
Bill Heisinga, who so didn't want to paycheck. Well he
teamed up with a Democrat. I don't think anybody should
be getting one. This is West Michigan's Morning New Steve,
Kelly and Kata with Michigan's fourth District Congressman Bill heising
Back on the liveline this morning. Thank you for doing
(00:20):
this this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Very good to be with you, Steve.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
So we're getting week three is underway. Talk to us
a little bit about the no Budget, no Pay Act.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, well again, first and foremost, this is imminently avoidable.
We don't need to be here, but here's where we're at.
And obviously the political games are rearing their ugly head.
So the guy that I'm co sponsoring this with, Scott Peters,
(00:53):
Scott and I are the co chairs of something called
the Bipartisan Fiscal Forum. The FF shows that on purpose,
and we really focus and concentrate on our debt and
our deficit and how are we going to get out
of our third nearly thirty eight trillion dollars in debt
as a nation. But he and I have worked on
(01:13):
a couple of different things. And we looked at this
situation and said, look if TFA and the Coast Guard
and all of our men and women in uniform, and
Board of Patrol and Department of Agriculture and everybody else
isn't getting a paycheck, you know, I mean, why would
why should we? Now, the Constitution says that we cannot
(01:36):
be denied a paycheck as members of Congress, but we
believe that there is a legal way, constitutional way of
saying okay, for the time that you are not funding government,
then those members of Congress, the House, and the Senate
shouldn't get a paycheck either, and we wouldn't get back pay.
(01:59):
So you know, we've got to do something. It's not
trying to be a gimmick. It's really trying to spur
on a conversation that has to be had.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
My eyes were open this weekend. I told everybody. We
took an uber and a young woman was the driver
and she was picking up extra ships. She's got kids,
and though she knows she's going to get a paycheck eventually,
like a lot of Americans, she's living paycheck to paycheck
and that puts an extra strain on her to try
to get healthcare daycare and all that stuff. Do there
(02:29):
are a lot of Americans that aren't necessarily serving in
Congress or the Senate that need these paychecks?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah? Absolutely. And look, I see our friendly TSA people
twice a week, and I actually taught to a group
of them or a couple of them on my way
out to Washington. And the older, longer term folks, they
lived through this, so they know to sock some stuf
(03:00):
up away. But especially those newer, younger TSA agents, they
haven't gone through this. They don't have a savings And
you know, think about our air traffic controllers just on
the transportation side of a loan where you've got TSA,
the air traffic controllers, all of the people that are
the inspectors, all of that. They're all out there working
(03:20):
without without a guaranteed paycheck. And yes, we intend to
make them whole, but there is no guarantee on that.
And look, not everybody has a lot of savings. And
how do you get through a month without a paycheck.
That's it's it's ridiculous. So anyway, you know, we've we've
(03:41):
got to get beyond this. Uh, Chuck Schumer's got to
get over himself. That's personal opinion on this and h
and figure out that the right thing to do is
to move forward and open up the government that then
gets everybody paid. But in the meantime, we've got to
have this conversation about why this is happening and how
we keep it from.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Happening again in Congressman, I appreciate your efforts on this because,
I mean, we haven't seen a lot of movement, as
you know. And the thing is, when you look at
the bigger picture, what's coming up, right, You've got Thanksgiving holiday,
The travel is going to be insane, as it always is.
I mean, it's right around the corner.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Right, yeah, absolutely, And what we're hearing is that conversations
aren't happening at all among the senators. Nobody's going in
and out of the out of the leader's office. No
one is really approaching anybody else with ideas. It's really
(04:38):
up to I think the individual senators at this point,
because look, the House is the House has passed the
bill that would fund government. We've got a couple of
Democrats that have crossed over on the Senate side, but
they cannot reach that sixty vote threshold at this point,
and that's the key. They've got to get there. And frankly,
it takes people like our cen UH to go to
(05:02):
Chuck Schumer and say, look, this has got to end.
We've got to move forward, get government open again, and
then we will start negotiating a lot of these important issues,
whether it's healthcare, whether it's our debt, whether it's defense spending,
all those things. But we've got to have a functioning
government at this point, and we don't have that, and
so it it's it's immensely frustrating right now. So I'm
(05:26):
hoping that people will get over themselves and start moving
ahead and start doing what's right for the American people.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Is Congressman Bill Heisinget, thanks for your time again today.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Hey, good to be with you guys. So hopefully next
time we talk it'll be a little better news.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
But we'll see
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