Active-duty service members are on the verge of missing their next paycheck due to Senate Democrats voting to keep the government shuttered indefinitely.
U.S. service members were already temporarily reporting to work without the certainty of being paid on time since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, but the 1.3 million active-duty troops are are likely to miss their first paycheck as the funding lapse drags on through next week. Top Democrats claimed Friday that the onus is on Republicans to prevent a pay lapse, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and a majority of his caucus have repeatedly rejected a clean funding measure to reopen the government.
Republican leaders have sharply criticized their Democratic counterparts for embracing the shutdown despite mounting fallout for military families. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers also received a partial paycheck on Friday due to the lapse in government funding.
“We’re not in a good mood here in the Capitol. It’s a somber day,” Speaker Mike Johnson said during a House GOP leadership press conference on Friday. “Today marks the first day federal workers across America will receive a partial paycheck thanks to Democrats’ obstruction to the system here. This is the last paycheck that 700,000 federal workers will see until Washington Democrats decide to do their job and reopen the government.”
“Starting next week, American service members, many of whom live paycheck-to-paycheck, are going to miss a full paycheck,” Johnson continued. “If Democrats don’t end this paycheck by Monday, then that October 15th [pay] date will pass us by.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Thursday also slammed the prospect of the Democrat shutdown forcing military personnel to miss a paycheck as “beyond the pale.”
The looming pay lapse will be the first time in American history that active-duty troops miss a paycheck.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday Trump is reviewing various options to ensure that troops are paid. A senior White House official told the Daily Caller News Foundation the administration is exploring every legal maneuver at its disposal to pay troops during the “Democrat Shutdown.”
Military charities have seen a surge in demand for financial assistance due to military families anxious about missing a paycheck. Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of military advocacy organization Blue Star Families told CNN that fewer than one in three military families have at least $3,000 in savings.
The Army’s official charity already approved over $7 million in payments for soldiers on active duty expecting to miss a paycheck on Oct. 15, and the Air Force’s charity has been flooded with applications for financial support. The charity reportedly has “several million in potential funds” for airmen and Space Force guardians staring down a missed payday.
Sean Ryan, a spokesperson for Army Emergency Relief (AER), told Task and Purpose over 6,000 people created accounts with AER since Oct. 8, and it’s estimated over 90% of those people will request financial aid. Because of the massive influx of online traffic on Wednesday, AER’s online portal struggled to operate and stopped working at one point.
“Currently, we are receiving applications on the portal for approval and putting them in the queue so they are ready for payment by [October] 15th,” Ryan told the outlet. “We are prepared for $50 million but will make adjustments as needed if more.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries claimed Republicans are not serious about paying troops during the shutdown at a press conference on Friday.
“They’re not serious about reopening the government. Republicans aren’t even serious about paying our active-duty troops,” Jeffries told reporters. “[Democrats are] ready, willing and able to sit down with our Republican colleagues, extend the Affordable Care Act tax credit, address the Republicans health care crisis, reopen the government, pay our troops, pay our hardworking federal employees, and enact a spending agreement that actually makes life better for the American people.”
Jeffries has repeatedly urged Democrats to oppose a clean stopgap funding bill that would reopen the government and avert a troop pay lapse. The minority leader and nearly all House Democrats voted against a measure that would have prevented a funding lapse in September.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has continued to urge rank-and-file Democrats to break with Schumer and vote for the bipartisan spending bill to reopen the government. If just five more Democrats supported the measure, the shutdown would end.
“All that has to happen is we pick up the bill off the Senate desk, five Democrats join us in addition to those who already have, and the government opens up again, and then you don’t have that discussion, everybody gets paid again,” Thune told PBS NewsHour on Thursday evening. “That’s the best way to end this.”
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