Johnson rules out separate House vote to pay troops during shutdown

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appeared to rule out bringing the House of Representatives back to Washington for a standalone vote on ensuring military service members get paid on time during the government shutdown.

Johnson pointed out to reporters at a Wednesday news conference that the House passed a federal funding bill last month that would have kept troops paid and avoided the shutdown altogether, but argued the onus is now on the Senate to pass that measure. The government shutdown is in its eighth day.

“I want everybody to listen to me very carefully. [House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.] and the House Democrats…are clamoring to get back here and have another vote because some of them want to get on record and say they’re for paying the troops,” Johnson said.

“We already had that vote. It’s called the [continuing resolution]. Every Republican and at least one Democrat had the common sense to say, ‘Of course, we want the government to stay in operation. Of course, we want to pay our troops and our air traffic controllers and our Border Patrol agents, TSA, and everybody else.’ We did have that vote.”

Members of the military are expected to get paid next Wednesday, but that money will be deferred if the government is still shut down.

A continuing resolution (CR) is an extension of current federal funding levels aimed at giving lawmakers more time to hash out a longer-term deal on the next fiscal year’s government spending.

The GOP-led CR that passed the House would roughly keep federal funding levels steady through Nov. 21, with an added $88 million in security spending for lawmakers, the White House and the judicial branch.

But that bill has stalled in the Senate, having failed five times so far as Democrats continue to insist on pairing any CR with an extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are poised to expire at the end of 2025.

Republicans have accused Democrats of holding Americans and the government hostage over partisan demands, while Democrats warned that the GOP would be responsible for hiking healthcare costs for millions of Americans if the enhanced COVID-era subsidies are allowed to expire.

Military service members are among several groups of federal government employees deemed “essential” during a shutdown, meaning they must keep working even while missing their paychecks.

They are poised to get that missed cash in the form of backpay once a shutdown is resolved, however.

On a private call between House Republicans and their leaders on Saturday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., pointed out that Oct. 15 would be the next consequential day in the ongoing shutdown standoff.

That’s the military’s next payday, meaning it will be the first paycheck U.S. troops will miss if the shutdown is ongoing.