2 U.S.C. § 39
Section 39 · Deductions for absence
Amended 3 times on record
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives (upon certification by the Clerk of the House of Representatives) 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 House, unless such Member or Delegate assigns as the reason for such absence the sickness of himself or of some member of his family.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Codification
R.S. §40 derived from act Aug. 16, 1856, ch. 123, §6, 11 Stat. 49.
Amendments
2005—Pub. L. 109–55 struck out “Secretary of the Senate and the” before “Chief Administrative Officer”, “, respectively,” before “shall deduct from”, “, respectively” before “, unless such Member”, and “Senate or” after “absent from the”.
1996—Pub. L. 104–186 substituted “the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives (upon certification by the Clerk of the House of Representatives)” for “Sergeant-at-Arms of the House”.
1981—Pub. L. 97–51 substituted “from the monthly payments (or other periodic payments authorized by law)” for “from the monthly payments”.
Effective Date of 1981 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 97–51 effective in the case of compensation payable for months after December 1981, see section 112(e) of Pub. L. 97–51, set out as a note under section 33 of this title.