Spectrum News: Military families worry about next paycheck as government remains gridlocked
The government shutdown is now in its third week, and unlike most other federal employees, members of the military received a paycheck Wednesday after President Donald Trump redirected money from the Pentagon’s research and development budget.
On social media last week, the president directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “to use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th,” adding, “We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS.”
But the payment is only a bandaid; as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. pointed out Wednesday, the move by the president “is a temporary fix.”
“If the Democrats continue to vote to keep the government closed – as they have done now so many times – then we know that U.S. troops are going to risk missing a full paycheck at the end of this month,” said Johnson.
And while military families were able to breathe a sigh of relief when the direct deposit registered in their accounts this week, veteran Janet Sanchez says that relief is only temporary.
“What are we going to do on the next paycheck when we don't know if it's going to be there?” she questioned.
Sanchez, who hails from Texas, is not just a veteran, but a military spouse and mother. Alongside Heidi Campbell, another military spouse, the pair visited Capitol Hill Wednesday to meet with lawmakers about the need for a more permanent solution to make sure the military is paid during this ongoing shutdown.
“We are an active duty family, and so we're directly impacted by missed paychecks or potential of missed paychecks,” Campbell said. “So that stress is going through our every day, whether or not we should take on extra bills, whether or not – we have a car repair that needs to be done. And I told the car shop, thank you for that estimate, I'm going to need to make sure we're getting paid before I can do this car repair.”
Last week, Reps. Derek Tran, D-Calif., and Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., who sit on the House Armed Services Committee, wrote a letter to Speaker Johnson asking him to bring the House back into session to pass a standalone bill to ensure members of the military continue to receive a paycheck. Johnson has declined to do so, trying to pressure Democrats in the Senate to vote to fund the whole government.
“We put that bill on the floor and the Republicans voted to pay the troops, TSA agents, border control, air traffic control and everybody else,” Johnson declared last week. “The Democrats voted no.”
Democrats have remained firm that they will not support the current stop-gap funding measure unless Republicans agree to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.
Vasquez and Tran applauded President Trump for making sure the troops get paid, but said Republicans should come back to Capitol Hill to deal with this head on.
“Taking money from the Department of Defense Research and Development program threatens our national security. That money's there, allocated for a reason. We can't continue to do this. Congress has to do its job,” said Vasquez.
Tran, an army veteran himself, said hearing stories like Campbell and Sanchez’s made him think of his own family.
“It's heartbreaking to sit in a room with them, to feel their anxiety and their fear of not being able to put food on the table for their families,” Tran said. “What would I do if I can't afford groceries and to make sure that my family is fed?”
“I know what it's like not to have a special interest group or a union to go out there and advocate for their rights. That's my job as their elected representative. So that's what I'm trying to do, and I'm going to continue [to do],” Tran added.
According to the Military Family Advisory Network, one in four active-duty military families faces food insecurity even when there is no interruption in pay.
“These are the folks that are lining up at food banks – this was before the shutdown. We've got to make sure that as people raise their hand and decide to serve our country, that we honor them with the quality of life and the dignity of serving in the US military. And with a trillion-dollar budget for the Department of Defense, I think we can afford to do that,” said Vasquez.
“We want to be able to talk to the speaker and other members who represent military communities like ours and veterans who have served in Congress bravely say, ‘let's take care of our troops. Let's make sure that this doesn't happen to them again.’ Under the circumstance of a shutdown, we can do that. And so we are asking for those conversations,” he added.
As both Democrats and Republicans dig in, Sanchez and Campbell say they hope politics can be put aside in the coming days to either pass a standalone bill to pay the troops, or to reopen the government so that service members and their families don’t have to miss a paycheck at the end of the month.
“When our military members go on deployment or raise their hand to serve this country, they're not thinking about any party. They're thinking about the safety of this country, they’re thinking about supporting their own families. And I think at this moment, it's disappointing that they're pulling from one side to the other while our military members and military families are suffering during this shutdown,” explained Sanchez.
“The military is nonpartisan. We show up and we do our job and we honor our oath. And it's really not about being right or left, it's a matter of right and wrong,” said Campbell. “Refusing to pay our military – that's wrong.”