WASHINGTON, April 8, 2011 (AFP) – Dozens of US lawmakers, including Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, will give back their salaries if the government shuts down, officials said Friday.

Around 40 lawmakers have pledged to forego their six-figure salaries for the duration of any shutdown after West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin put the idea forward on Thursday, Manchin’s office told AFP.

Manchin sent a letter to colleagues in which he vowed to give back his salary for the length of time the government is shuttered, and asking them to do the same.

“While millions of American families will be impacted by a government shutdown… elected officials are the one group who will not be impacted,” Manchin wrote in the letter.

“Just the opposite, in fact: we still get paid,” he added.

Some 800,000 federal workers are expected to be forced to take unpaid leave during the shutdown, which will take effect at a minute past midnight (0401 GMT) Saturday if the Democrats and Republicans fail to agree on where and by how much to cut the 2011 budget.

Lawmakers make in the region of US$170,000 a year, more if they hold a leadership position such as House speaker or Senate leader.

Manchin vowed to donate his salary to charity or return it to the Treasury “until the government works again,” and urged his 535 colleagues in Congress as well as President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to do the same.

Reid signed on to the pledge within hours of seeing Manchin’s letter, as did around a dozen other lawmakers, including former Republican presidential contender John McCain.

News reports said Boehner has also vowed to give up his salary if the government shuts down, saying in a letter to colleagues: “In the event of a lapse in appropriations for fiscal year 2011 causing a government shutdown, I will return any and all compensation that I would otherwise be entitled to.”