“Where I come from, nobody gets paid for a job they didn’t do,” Walz said in a statement following the vote. “The American people send us here to work together and solve the country’s problems and if we can’t do that, I don’t think we should be taking home a paycheck.”

Walz took to the House floor on Friday to rally support for his amendment. “We should have an up or down vote on this. There is no need to delay and no need to include it in a larger, more complicated package,” he said. “This is simple. Members of Congress and the President shouldn’t get special treatment.”

He added, “The language already in this bill isn’t good enough. It doesn’t allow for immediate passage of this simple provision and it doesn’t prevent Members of Congress from retroactively paying themselves.”

The bill split the Minnesota delegation along party lines. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who has been criticizing Democrats on shutdown rhetoric, voted against the amendment.

Shortly after voting against the provision, Bachmann went to reporters Friday to say that members should not get paid if there’s a shutdown.

“This is a matter of priorities,” she said. “If the United States Congress is deciding to play games, they need to lose their paychecks.”

The Senate earlier this year passed a bill to do just that, but House Democratic leaders are sitting on it, hoping it goes away. Today, Massa announced the intention to circulate a discharge petition that would force a floor vote if at least half the House membership signs on.

As The Hill points out, discharge petitions are usually circulated by members of the minority party who want to force a vote on an issue unpalatable to the majority. It’s an embarrassment tactic, and for that reason members of the majority party don’t usually drop them on their own leaders.

In the midst of recession, lawmakers have already voted to forgo their pay raises in 2010, but the automatic raise mechanism will kick in once more in 2011 — a condition the Senate bill would prevent.

At least one lawmaker is cheering Massa’s move. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), the long-time sponsor of the Senate pay-raise bill, issued a statement this afternoon saying that it’s “inexcusable” for Congress to get raises while so many others across the country have lost their jobs.

“If members of Congress believe that they deserve a raise,” Feingold said, “they should be willing to vote on it in the open.”

Unfortunately for the Wisconsin senator, not many of his colleagues agree.

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