Latest action. Upon reconsideration, clotureThe Senate's only procedure for ending debate over objection. Most legislation needs 60 votes; nominations need a simple majority.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) on the motion to proceed to the measure not invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 53 - 43. Record Vote Number: 609.
Shutdown Fairness Act
This bill provides appropriations to pay federal employees who work during a government shutdown.
Specifically, the bill provides appropriations for federal agencies to provide standard rates of pay, allowances, pay differentials, benefits, and other payments to excepted employees for work performed during any period in which interim continuing appropriations or full-year appropriations are not in effect for a fiscal year (i.e., a government shutdown). An excepted employee is an employee who is required to work during a government shutdown.
Under current law, excepted employees are not paid until the government shutdown is over. This bill provides appropriations to pay excepted employees during a government shutdown. The bill also specifies that the term excepted employee includes certain contractors who support federal employees during a government shutdown and members of the Armed Forces who are on active duty.
A federal agency may not use the funds provided by this bill during any period in which continuing appropriations are in effect for the purpose of paying excepted employees of the agency.
The bill must take effect as if it had been enacted on September 30, 2025.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on October 15, 2025. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Upon reconsideration, cloture on the motion to proceed to the measure not invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 53 - 43. Record Vote Number: 609.
Civibrief does not map this action to a stage in the process. See the official record.
The latest action on file does not map to a stage Civibrief recognizes, so the page will not name one. The record's own words are the reliable fact here.
The record's latest action, on November 7, 2025: Upon reconsideration, cloture on the motion to proceed to the measure not invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 53 - 43. Record Vote Number: 609.
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one has no outstanding steps listed above.
Yes. 2 recorded roll-call votes cite this measure, listed further down this page with every member's position.
Ron Johnson (R-WI) introduced it on October 15, 2025, and 13 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 13 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
It was introduced on October 15, 2025, 330 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 307 days ago, on November 7, 2025.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 119th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2027 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.