[O'brien:] That's Alison Krauss, "When You Say Nothing At All." That's Congressman's Jim Cooper's playlist, joining us this morning. You can see our entire play list on our Web site at CNN.comstartingpoint. Nothing has been played of mine yet. If you talk about Congress people, $174,000 a year is what you get as a paycheck. It's minimum that you make if you work in Congress. That's a time when congress' approval rating among American is at an all-time low. I believe it's at nine percent. It was 10 percent, down to nine percent now. This morning though we are hearing there are hearings in Congress to change that, no budget no, pay bill. It cuts off paychecks for members of Congress if they can't pass a budget by the fiscal end of the year. They haven't passed a budget since 2009. Latest idea from the group called No Labels and has bipartisan par bipartisan support. The Democratic representative from Tennessee Jim Cooper proposed the House version bill. He and Tom Davis, who is a former Republican Congressman from Virginia, are co-founders of No Labels. They're going or testifying at a hearing today. Good morning. Congressman Davis, nice to see you. You had a chance to come visit with us. I know what is behind the bill is a frustration. And I'll get to that in a moment. First, I want you to walk me through the specifics of the bill that's proposed.
[Rep. Jim Cooper,  Tennessee:] All we do is to say that Congress has to pass its budgets and appropriation bills on time. And on time means by the beginning at fiscal year which is October 1st every year. Congress has largely failed to do this in the past. We think it's high time that Congress did its job this year.
[O'brien:] Or what?
[Cooper:] Or Congress would not be paid. And the signs are that Congress could, you know, be a few days late or even a week late but I think eventually Congress would do the job on time and Congress would want to get paid.
[O'brien:] Congressman Davis, you have cosponsors, 34 in the house, 36 in the Senate. Several hundred people have a vested interest in the Bill who may not be so inclined to sign on. What's the likelihood a Bill leak this would pass?
[Tom Davis,  Former Virginia Congressman:] It's got a hearing in the Senate. I suspect there will be hearings in the house at this point. Look, the key here Congress has not passed the appropriation bills on time since 1996. That means the government agencies can't start doing their work because they didn't know what budget they're going to have for the year. It means contracts aren't let, people aren't hired, innovations don't take place. So this is borne out of frustration. The Senate passed a resolution last year that said if there was a shutdown senators wouldn't get paid. I think there's a frustration among the members that they want to get this stuff done. They just want been able to do it. A year ago it was May before you got the appropriation bills done for a fiscal year that started October 1.
[O'brien:] Catherine, is this legal?
[Crier:] Sure. Governors have done this and it's occurred in state houses. Absolutely, the legislature should do it and they should do other things this organization is talking about. The notion that we're not getting a five-day workweek, the notion these guys can show up on a Tuesday afternoon and go home on the Thursday afternoon and get the kind of recesses they get
[O'brien:] You're talking about insider trading?
[Crier:] Insider trading and we won't bet into the manipulation of rules and the processes but I think this is a great step. If you can get a bipartisan passage of this, that would be absolutely extraordinary. But we've got to do something because they're stalemating the entire process.
[O'brien:] Ultimately I'm sure this is about frustration and trying to stave off the public frustration with this system. Is internally frustration in Congress as well? You must be I'm embarrassed and horrified by those low approval numbers, right?
[Cooper:] What this bill is about is about aligning interests. Today there are some members of Congress who benefit from these delays. We want to make sure that no one benefits.
[O'brien:] But do they benefit?
[Cooper:] Some of them get publicity and publicity in politics is like gold. Some are able to favor certain special interests without having a cut taking place as soon as it would have. There are other ways to manipulate our system. Everyone back home understands if you don't do the work, you can't get people.
[O'brien:] The medium net worth of a Congressperson is just under a million dollars. Do you think really ultimately withholding a salary at the end of the day is going to be a huge disincentive to sit around and basically run to open mikes and run to press conferences?
[Davis:] I've been out for three years. Retired, undefeated, unindicted. Just happy to get
[O'brien:] We love when you say that, by the way.
[Davis:] But there's tremendous frustration among rank- and-file members who come to Washington to get things done only to find out they don't get the choices they want on this. I think the theory behind this is, if the members are saying let's get on time, they will prevail on the leaders to get the votes up in a timely manner.
[O'donnell:] Why not add the word "balanced" to the board budget, too. And then you get your pay.
[Cain:] Baby steps. Baby steps.
[O'brien:] Brett, don't go crazy. All right, nice to see you. We're going to follow up and see how this goes when you do your testifying today. Still ahead this morning on STARTING POINT, Dick Cheney is not going to be visiting Canada any time soon. He says it's too dangerous. We'll tell you why he says that. But our "Get Real," a band blindsides a school where they've been invited by an assembly that went a little bit off the rails. You're watching STARTING POINT. We're back in just a moment.