US Congress Members Should Not Get Paid During Shutdown – Haley

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Members of the United States Congress should not receive their salaries as long as the partial government shutdown over funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border continues, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in a statement on Thursday.

"Today the new Congress takes office. No member should get paid while the government is shut down and border security is not funded," Haley said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Federal government agencies have been partially closed since December 22 after Democratic lawmakers refused to meet President Donald Trump’s demand for $5 billion to build the controversial wall on the US-Mexico border. The president rejected a Democratic deal that included $1.3 billion in border security.

The 116th US Congress will be sworn in on Thursday with a newly elected Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

Haley, the former governor of the US state of South Carolina, left her post in the Trump administration at the end of 2018.