House Speaker Mike Johnson rejects standalone bill to pay US troops, adds feds ‘should’ get back pay as shutdown drags on

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) rejected voting on a standalone bill to fund US military members’ salaries Wednesday, as the federal government shutdown entered its second week.

Johnson pointed out during a press conference that the seven-week stopgap funding measure passed by the House on Sept. 19 would have fully funded troops’ pay.

“We already had that vote,” the House speaker said. “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.’”

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) was the only member of his party to break ranks and vote for full funding of the government until Nov. 21.

“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 also suggested Wednesday.

Last month, Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) proposed legislation guarenteeing service members would not be left short of money if the government shut down any time before the beginning of 2027.

“The President has made it clear: we must pay our troops,” Kiggans, whose district includes a sizable military population centered around Naval Station Norfolk, said in a statement on X.

“I’m urging the Speaker and our House leadership to immediately pass my bill to ensure our servicemembers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck while supporting their families, receive the pay they’ve earned.”

The next check for military members is scheduled to be sent Oct. 15, but the money will be delayed if the government isn’t reopened by then.

“They made that decision. The House is done. The ball is now in the Senate’s court. … It does us no good to be here dithering on show votes,” Johnson said.

President Trump promised over the weekend that troops will receive “every last penny” they are owed even if the shutdown drags on.

But Johnson had noted on Tuesday that a draft White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo indicated not all furloughed workers will get backpay at the conclusion of a shutdown — despite the guarantee having been enshrined in a law Trump signed amid the 35-day shutdown that stretched from December 2018 into January 2019.

“I hope that the furloughed workers receive back pay, of course,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday. “We have some extraordinary Americans who serve the federal government — they serve valiantly and they work hard and they serve in these various agencies doing really important work.”

On Wednesday, the speaker was more firm on making federal employees whole: “It has always been the case, that is tradition and I think it is statutory law, that federal employees be paid. And that’s my position. I think they should be.”

Three senators who caucus with Democrats — John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and independent Angus King of Maine — have consistently voted to reopen the government since the shutdown began Oct. 1.

But 44 other Senate Democrats have blocked the bill from clearing the 60-vote filibuster four times over that same stretch.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) both whipped their caucuses against the stopgap bill, claiming it didn’t extend Affordable Care Act subsidies necessary to keep health care premium costs down.

Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) have signaled that discussions about the Obamacare subsidies, which expire at the end of this year, would be conducted after a simple funding bill passes both chambers of Congress.