KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II wants to hold members of Congress accountable by deducting their pay anytime a mass shooting occurs.
Cleaver hopes to do so through the "No Pay Until Peace Act" he introduced Thursday.
The move came in response to the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers.
Under Cleaver's proposal, Congress members would have a month's paycheck withheld each month a mass shooting occurs in the United States.
The deductions would happen when four or more people die in a single incident.
“For as long as I’ve served in Congress, despite overwhelming support for gun safety reform from the public, I’ve watched this institution fail time and time again to take any serious, meaningful action to address the scourge of gun violence plaguing communities across the country," Cleaver said in part in a press release.
Cleaver joins other members of Congress in demanding lawmakers take action following the shooting.
Hours after the shooting, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut gave an emotional speech questioning what Congress has done to prevent mass shootings.
“What are we doing?" Murphy said on Tuesday. ”Just days after a shooter walked into a grocery store to gun down African American patrons, we have another Sandy Hook on our hands.”
Cleaver said he hopes the legislation would raise accountability for Congress members.
"If lawmakers aren’t going to do their jobs to protect the American people, then they ought not receive any compensation following the inevitable next mass shooting," he said. "I don’t doubt that many of my colleagues would rather have a campaign check from the NRA than a paycheck for their obstruction in Congress — but we can’t continue with the unacceptable status quo, and this bill will, hopefully, make my colleagues across the aisle think twice before sitting on their hands while the next mass shooter plots more carnage in another community.”
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