Active service members risk losing their paychecks if the ongoing government shutdown is not resolved soon, with officials warning that funds for military compensation could run out by mid-November.
Washington leaders are sounding the alarm about the approaching cutoff date for military pay. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained the timeline during an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Sunday.
“We were able to pay the military employees from excess funds at the Pentagon, middle of this month,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Sunday. “I think we’ll be able to pay them beginning in November. But by Nov. 15, our troops and service members who are willing to risk their lives aren’t going to be able to get paid. What an embarrassment.”
If the shutdown continues until Nov. 15, it would become the longest in U.S. history, surpassing the 34-day record set during President Donald Trump’s first term. The current shutdown, which began on Oct. 1, is already the second longest and has no clear endpoint in sight.
The federal government’s ability to pay the troops could be questioned even sooner than the Nov. 15 deadline. The last payday for service members was Oct. 15, covered after Trump signed a memorandum directing the federal government to pay active service members with any funds “that remain available for expenditure.”
However, it is unclear if this memorandum applies to the next scheduled payday on Oct. 31. When asked if service members would receive paychecks later this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday that “we’re not 100% sure.”
“I do know the Administration and everybody is bending over backwards to try to figure that out, but I don’t know the final analysis yet,” Johnson said.
Legislative efforts to guarantee interim pay for working federal staff and active service members have failed amid partisan conflict. On Thursday, Senate Democrats rejected a Republican-backed bill intended to pay active service members and other federal staffers mandated to work during the shutdown. By law, federal employees are guaranteed back pay once a government shutdown ends, but the bill was meant to provide compensation in the interim.
While some Democrats crossed party lines to support the bill, others argued that it would give the Trump Administration too much power to pick and choose which federal workers receive pay during the shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Republican-backed bill a “ruse” that could end up extending the shutdown.
“We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people’s livelihoods,” he said.
Instead, Democrats supported a counter-proposal that would have paid all federal employees and contractors, but Republicans blocked that legislation.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat behind the comprehensive bill, stated: “Republicans are hell-bent on letting Trump pick winners and losers here, but every federal worker, servicemember, and federal contractor deserves to get paid.”
Last week, the President announced that his Administration had received an anonymous private donation of $130 million intended to help pay troops during the shutdown. The New York Times later reported that the donor was billionaire Timothy Mellon.
The donation provides only limited relief. The federal government’s annual budget for total military compensation is about $600 billion. With more than 1.3 million active troops, the $130 million donation equates to approximately $100 per service member, the Times reported.
The Administration has also faced controversy regarding back pay for federal workers. Earlier this month, Trump suggested that some federal workers “don’t deserve to be taken care of” during the shutdown—a controversial remark that indicated his Administration was considering denying back pay to thousands of furloughed employees once the government reopens. An Administration official told TIME at the time that a new legal analysis from the White House claimed furloughed workers are not entitled to back pay when they return, apparently contradicting a law Trump signed in 2019. Given its current efforts to keep paying them, it is unclear if the Administration would seek to withhold back pay from active service members.
