This is Day 8 of the government shutdown. There’s no resolution to the crisis in sight.
We want to focus this morning on military pay. Whether and how to pay soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines has become a huge flashpoint as this funding showdown grinds on.
One week from today, Oct. 15, some 1.3 million active duty service members will miss their next scheduled paycheck if nothing is done first. Tens of thousands of deployed or full-time National Guard members and thousands of Coast Guard personnel face the same threat.
There needs to be some resolution to the funding impasse by Monday, Oct. 13, for military personnel to get paid. That’s not looking promising.
Where things stand: President Donald Trump has already threatened to lay off many of the 750,000 civilian federal employees who are currently furloughed. Top Trump administration officials have even questioned whether these federal workers deserve back pay once the shutdown is over, a major break from previous funding lapses.
Remember: During the 2018-2019 shutdown, the Pentagon was funded, one of the reasons the stalemate lasted as long as it did.
Trump has promised that troops won’t miss a paycheck. Most lawmakers in both parties want to avoid that outcome, too.
The only problem? No one in power has done anything yet to ensure it won’t happen. The House hasn’t even voted since Sept. 19, as GOP leaders believe it’s a better strategy to keep their members home than in Washington.
The logjam. Inside the White House, senior aides are looking at ways to make Trump’s statement a reality. One option would be to repurpose the $150 billion in Pentagon funding approved by Congress as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
But Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told us he wants to see Congress pass a standalone bill instead. Using reconciliation money to cover military personnel salaries, Reed said, wasn’t “ever intended or envisioned” when lawmakers approved the package.
“I hope that Congress would pass the standalone bill because the difficulty with reconciliation is it’s turning into a slush fund where anything they need, they pull out,” Reed said. “I’d rather have Congress direct that.”
News here: Ten House Democrats, led by Reps. Gabe Vasquez (N.M.) and Derek Tran (Calif.), are sending a letter today to Speaker Mike Johnson calling on him to bring the House back before Oct. 15 to pass a bill to pay the troops.
Other Democrats signing onto the letter include Reps. Wesley Bell (Mo.), Angie Craig (Minn.), Steven Horsford (Nev.), Susie Lee (Nev.), Ted Lieu (Calif.), Pat Ryan (N.Y.), Andrea Salinas (Ore.) and Tom Suozzi (N.Y.). We expect more House Democrats to sign onto this letter.
Where are the Senate UCs? By this point in the shutdown, you may have expected to see senators marching to the floor to ask for unanimous consent to mitigate certain impacts of the funding lapse. That could be anything from paying troops or air traffic controllers or funding a vital federal program like WIC. Typically, these requests are used as a cudgel to make the other party look bad for objecting.
But none of that has happened during this shutdown. That’s because both sides are so entrenched in their positions and would view standalone “fund this, fund that” efforts as wrecking their leverage.
Republicans don’t want to give Democrats cover to continue holding up passage of their clean funding bill. And Democrats don’t want to make it seem like they’re cracking under the pressure of a shutdown.
So both parties are largely staying on message. After Johnson said he’d be “open” to a standalone bill to pay the troops, Thune immediately dismissed that idea, noting that the House-passed CR would accomplish the same goal. Leading Senate GOP defense hawks have echoed Thune’s sentiment.
“I think the Democrats need to vote to open the government so we can pay our military,” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.).
Speaking of staying on message, here’s what Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said when we asked about the possibility of using reconciliation funds to pay service members during the shutdown: “They’re clearly trying to figure out a way not to talk about health care.”
Other Democrats, however, signaled they may be open to the Pentagon tapping into reconciliation funding to cover service members’ salaries during the shutdown.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told us he’d want the Defense Department to “come make that case” to lawmakers before acting. But Kaine added he doesn’t “immediately have a red flag that goes up against it.” And Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said she is “open to a bunch of creative options” to pay troops.
