Hirono will donate salary earned during government shutdown

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) announced Thursday the she will donate the salary she receives during the partial government shutdown to food banks across her state.

“More than 2,500 federal workers in Hawaii are either furloughed or working without pay during the holidays because Donald Trump shut down the government,” Hirono said in a news release from her office.

{mosads}“As long as Donald Trump refuses to re-open the government, I will be donating my salary to Hawaii’s food banks — who serve nearly one in eight Hawaii residents in need,” she continued.

The Hawaii Democrat, who has been serving on the Senate since 2013, also donated her salary during government shutdowns in January and in 2013. 

Her announcement comes a week after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said she will donate her salary to charity while part of the federal government is shut down.

“I cannot take a salary during a government shutdown knowing that so many federal workers in Nevada and across the country will go without pay,” Cortez Masto tweeted shortly after the shutdown began last weekend. “I’ll be donating my salary to a Nevada charity for every day of the Trump shutdown.”

North Dakota’s senators — Republican John Hoeven and Democrat Heidi Heitkamp — have also said they will donate their paychecks to charity during the shutdown, while Rep. Kevin Cramer (R), who is taking over Heitkamp’s seat in the new Congress, reportedly dismissed the move as a gimmick.

Parts of the federal government shut down on Saturday over President Trump’s demand for $5 billion in funding for his long-sought southern border wall. Legislation that met Trump’s demand passed the House but failed in the Senate, while the upper chamber was able to pass a clean continuing resolution that did not include the wall funding, which House leadership did not put up for a vote. 

The new Democratic majority will take control of the House next week, but Trump has pledged he will not sign any government spending measure without sufficient border security funding.