In The News
While food and airline safety inspectors stay home, national parks remain closed and basic scientific research grinds to a halt, a private gym reserved exclusively for members of the House of Representatives remains open.
A gym for Senators is also still open.
Though congress members pay small monthly fees, the gyms are run largely on taxpayer dollars.
House Democrats have a new strategy to force their fellow members of Congress to feel the pain of the shutdown — stripping them of their gym privileges.
Such a move would not just block members from burning carbs, though. It would also prevent the members who sleep in their offices from availing themselves of the showers that keep them from offending.
WASHINGTON — Two House Democrats are going after the congressional dumbbells.
Reps. Patrick Murphy of Florida and Bill Foster of Illinois demanded Wednesday the shutdown of the House gym, which has stayed open even while much of the federal government has closed.
Two House Democrats want the congressional gym closed until the shutdown impasse is over.
Reps. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) are circulating a letter that asks House Speaker John Boehner to deem the House spa non-essential for the duration of the shutdown.
The government shutdown hasn't closed the private House and Senate gyms, which have been kept open along with their showers by the Architect of the Capitol, the agency responsible for the maintenance of the Capitol Complex.
The federal government may be closed, but the gyms for members of Congress are still open. That doesn't sit well with U.S. Reps. Bill Foster (D-IL, 11) and Patrick Murphy (D-FL, 18).
The big budget standoff continues in Washington, but there is some news out of the Beltway: The number of local congressmen who aren't accepting pay until the fight is over is now at four.
WASHINGTON — A group of about 90 elderly veterans flew here from Chicago’s Midway Airport on Wednesday and visited the National World War II Memorial — shutdown be darned.
Two Illinois House members have plans for the salary they will earn during the government shutdown — and it's not to keep the funds.
Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL,13) says he will donate his salary to the Northern Illinois Food Bank.
Imagine if Congress mandated that an arbitrary number of jail cells be filled with prisoners -- regardless of the crime rate. Authorities would be required to incarcerate people, no matter the circumstances or the affront to human rights. That’s basically the state of immigration detention in the U.S.