Nearly 30 Republican veterans and reservists serving in the House are calling on Senate Democrats to accept a short-term spending bill to end the government shutdown, citing concerns over troop pay and military readiness. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Nearly 30 Republican veterans and reservists serving in the House are calling on Senate Democrats to accept a short-term spending bill to end the government shutdown, citing concerns over troop pay and military readiness.
The 27 lawmakers, who are all either reservists and Guardsmen or former service members, told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., that Democrats’ refusal to vote for the measure was putting military families and veterans at risk.
“Our troops nearly missed paychecks until President Trump took unilateral action to ensure they got paid. Training is still halted. Readiness is collapsing,” said Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, who led the appeal to Schumer from the conservative Republican Study Committee.
In a letter, members of the group with ties to the military blamed Democrats for a shutdown that has furloughed nearly half of the Pentagon’s civilian workforce, limited some Department of Veterans Affairs operations and disrupted drill weekends for members of the reserves and the National Guard.
Schumer and other Democrats have in turn blamed Republicans for crafting a stop-gap spending measure without their input and said they will not vote for it until Republicans agree to an extension of expiring health care subsidies.
Congress remained in a stalemate on Thursday, with the House out of session for a fourth week and the Senate holding a tenth failed vote on a House-passed measure to reopen the government. Senate Democrats on Thursday also blocked the advancement of an annual defense spending bill in protest of the impasse.
The Pentagon on Wednesday was able to cut paychecks for 1.3 million active-duty troops and tens of thousands of National Guard members and reservists on active-duty orders after tapping into $6.5 billion in unused research and development funds.
But the move was a “temporary fix,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged this week, and whether there will be enough money to pay troops on the next pay date of Oct. 31 is unclear.
Lawmakers from both parties have expressed support for passing standalone legislation that would pay troops for the duration of the shutdown, but Republican leaders have resisted bringing the measure to a vote, saying it was incumbent on Senate Democrats to reopen the government.
More than a dozen advocacy groups for military personnel and veterans joined forces on Tuesday to urge Congress to pass the standalone Pay Our Troops Act, describing the shutdown as a “kitchen-table crisis for military families” who live paycheck to paycheck.
Republican veterans and reservists told Schumer it was “unconscionable to wield their paychecks as a political weapon.”
“Every military service member and veteran deserves better,” they wrote.
