Presidential hopeful John F. Kerry has been a virtual no-show in the U.S. Senate over the past 14 months, but he hasn’t missed a paycheck, even though a dusty federal law says some of his $158,000 salary should have been withheld.
During his run for the presidency, Kerry has missed every one of the 22 roll call votes in the Senate this year and was absent for 292, or 64 percent of the roll call votes last year, according to a Herald review of Senate records.
That means the Massachusetts senator has been away from his post in the Senate chamber for at least 128 days over the past 14 months. . . .
Section 39 of the United States Code Service requires the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House to deduct daily pay from members for each day they are absent.
The only legal excuse is if the senator or representative, or one of their family members, is ill, the law states.
This seems to actually refer to 2 U.S.C. sec. 39, which provides:
The Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives (upon certification by the Clerk of the House of Representatives), respectively, shall deduct from the monthly payments (or other periodic payments authorized by law) of each Member or Delegate the amount of his salary for each day that he has been absent from the Senate or House, respectively, unless such Member or Delegate assigns as the reason for such absence the sickness of himself or of some member of his family.
I hope he’ll cut a check to the Treasury immediately.
UPDATE: Despite their near-total absence from the Senate in recent months, Kerry and Edwards are returning to Washington today to cast pro-gun-control votes, even though it’s the biggest primary day of the season, according to a story I just heard on NPR.
I guess this makes clear where they stand on the issue, something that people may wish to remember in the Fall.