FRESNO, Calif. (KGPE/KSEE) – Congressman John Duarte says he wants his own congressional pay withheld in the event of a government shutdown.

He sent a letter to the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives, making his request. Duarte says in order to avoid the government shutdown, Congress needs to pass a stop-gap funding measure – or get an appropriation bill approved.

“We just failed to do that in the house. That is unfortunate all of the democrats were hold-outs but if the Republicans let it go through we would have talked about border security as we did with the debt limit,” said Rep. John Duarte.

Duarte says the most important thing is lawmakers meeting in the middle – which hasn’t happened at this point – but he says they are close to making a deal.