With Congress barreling toward a government shutdown at the end of the week, some lawmakers are hoping to ensure troops can continue getting paid, but it’s unclear whether their efforts will be successful.
Bills have been introduced in both the House and the Senate that would allow service members, including members of the Coast Guard, to keep getting paychecks in the event government funding runs out when the fiscal year ends this weekend — a scenario that appears to be increasingly likely.
So far, though, there have been no public signals from either chamber’s leadership that they will move forward on those bills. House Republicans continue to focus on negotiating among themselves on spending bills that wouldn’t pass the Democratic-controlled Senate anyway, and the Senate is attempting to force the House to swallow a bipartisan bill to avoid a shutdown with short-term funding.
Read Next: A Suicidal Veteran Texted the VA Crisis Line. A Responder Didn’t Send Help, and Minutes Later the Veteran Was Dead.
“I will not allow the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our country go without pay,” Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., a Navy veteran, said in a statement last week about introducing the Pay Our Troops Act.
“Our servicemembers shouldn’t suffer because of Washington‘s dysfunction,” Kiggans added. “As we continue working to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month, this legislation will give our…
