The military usually gets paid during government shutdowns. Here's why they might not this time around.

Even during government shutdowns, members of the military usually still get paid. While millions of federal workers are either furloughed or work without receiving a paycheck until after the government reopens, Congress typically finds a way to keep payroll flowing to service members. 

That may not be the case this time around. About 1.3 million active duty military personnel are on track to miss a paycheck next week unless lawmakers either find a way to end the shutdown or approve legislation to ensure that they are paid on time. 

“Asking service members to report for duty with no pay degrades morale and creates hardship on military families,” the National Guard Association, a lobbying group that advocates for members of the service, wrote in a letter to members of Congress on Tuesday. 

With no path to a deal to reopen the government in sight, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday he was open to bringing back his chamber for a vote on a bill to pay the military. But he changed his stance on Wednesday morning, telling reporters that the House already voted to pay service members when it passed a bill to keep the government open several weeks ago. 

“We already had that vote,” he said. 

Mike Johnson’s counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader Jon Thune, has been consistent in his opposition to the idea.

“The simplest way to end it is not try to exempt this group or that one or that group. It’s to get the government open,” he said on Tuesday. 

Military pay wasn’t an issue during the last shutdown in 2018 because the Department of Defense was one of the few arms of the government that remained open throughout the record-breaking 35-day impasse. During the 2013 shutdown, Congress passed a stand-alone bill to provide funding for military payroll. 

Bipartisan calls to approve military pay

There have been calls from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for Congress to set aside its other issues and find a way to ensure that the military gets paid. Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Republican from Virginia and a former Navy helicopter pilot, proposed a bill two weeks before the shutdown began that would guarantee pay and benefits even when funding for other parts of the government runs out. 

“Military pay should not be held hostage due to Washington’s dysfunction!” she wrote in a social media post on Wednesday. 

Her sentiments were echoed by 10 Democratic representatives, who sent Johnson a letter urging him to bring the House back into session for a vote on military pay. 

“Those who dedicate their lives to serving our country should never have to worry whether they will receive a paycheck, even during a government shutdown,” they wrote. 

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, also wants Congress to pass a special bill, rather than hope that the shutdown is resolved before the military is forced to go without pay. 

“I hope that Congress would pass the stand-alone bill because the difficulty with reconciliation is it’s turning into a slush fund where anything they need, they pull out,” he told the political insider site Punchbowl News.

During a speech in front of thousands of Navy sailors over the weekend, President Trump assured them that they would get their full pay despite the shutdown. He notably did not specify whether that money would come on the regular schedule or until after the government had reopened. 

“I want you to know that despite the current Democrat-induced shutdown, we will get our service members every last penny,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. Do not worry about it — it’s all coming.”

The potential missed paycheck isn’t the only way the shutdown is impacting military families. A range of “nonessential” services that many families rely on, most notably after-school programs for children, have been suspended. 

“These kids have already made sacrifices for the government, like their dad missing more birthdays and holidays than I can count and unfairly have this burden too,” an unnamed military spouse stationed in Guam told CNN.

The disagreement over military pay is related to a much larger dispute over compensation for the 750,000 federal workers who have been furloughed during the shutdown. 

Congress passed a law in 2019 mandating that all government workers receive full back pay after a shutdown ends. But Trump’s administration began arguing this week that it is not obligated to make those payments and can opt to withhold the funds after the government reopens.