GOP veterans urge Senate Democrats to end shutdown for troops

First on Fox: A group of Republican veterans in the House of Representatives is pressuring Senate Democrats who also served in the military to support a federal funding bill introduced by Republicans and end the government shutdown.

US troops are expected to lose their first paycheck due to the ongoing shutdown on October 15, with Republicans and Democrats still unable to agree on a path forward by next week.

“We are a group of military veterans now serving in the House of Representatives who voted ‘yes’ to the continuing House resolution on September 19. We are writing to you, my fellow veterans who now serve in the United States Senate, and who have voted ‘no’ on the same resolution multiple times. We hope you receive this message the way it was intended: as brothers and sisters in arms, not as partisans,” the letter read. Posted on Saturday.

“This short-term measure has no cuts, no policy dissenters, and no gimmicks. It simply keeps the government open while giving congress time to responsibly negotiate a dozen long-term appropriations bills. Most importantly, it ensures that our troops, the same men and women we once served with, continue to receive their paychecks without interruption.”

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The Senate will need to pass the House GOP funding bill by Monday, Oct. 13, in order for military pay to be disbursed on time the following Wednesday, according to Military Times.

But the Senate will likely not be in session because Monday is a federal holiday, meaning the soonest possible vote is Tuesday.

Active duty service members, like other federal employees deemed essential, must continue to work during the government shutdown.

The prospect of losing their next paycheck has become a particularly painful flashpoint in the standoff over government funding.

The Senate has now rejected the House-passed measure — a bill that would keep spending roughly at par with fiscal year (FY) 2025 levels through Nov. 21, called a continuing resolution (CR) — seven times.

It passed the House along mostly party lines on September 19. But Democrats in the House and Senate have been largely angered by being sidelined in federal funding talks and are now demanding that any spending deal also include an extension of the enhanced COVID-19-era Obamacare subsidy that is set to expire at the end of this year.

Republican leaders who control the House and Senate said they were willing to negotiate those subsidies, but insisted that the Czech Republic must be “clean” without any political prosecution. The CRs are intended to give congressional negotiators more time to reach a long-term financing agreement for fiscal year 2026, which began on October 1.

The government is in partial shutdown after Congress failed to reach an agreement on federal funding. (Getty Images)

“This short-term measure has no cuts, no policy violators, and no gimmicks. It simply keeps the government open while giving Congress time to responsibly negotiate a dozen long-term appropriations bills. Most importantly, it ensures that our troops, the same men and women we once served with, continue to receive their paychecks without interruption,” Saturday’s letter said.

“We understand that you oppose some of the policies in the big, beautiful bill and that you have strong preferences regarding the future of Affordable Care Act appropriations. We respect that you have those priorities. But for the sake of our troops, we ask that you vote in favor of the continuing resolution and affirm those policy preferences during subsequent debates and debates that do not interrupt the troop push.”

It is led by Rep. Nick Lalotta, R-N.Y., a military veteran, and signed by 21 other House Republicans who also served. The letter is addressed to seven Democratic military veterans in the Senate who all voted against CR.

At the current vote count, only five more Democrats are needed to cross the aisle and support the Republican so he can overcome a Senate filibuster and move to a final vote.

A shouting match broke out between Hakeem Jeffries and Mike Lawler as the government shutdown chaos continues

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The letter is being sent after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., faces mounting pressure from Republicans and Democrats to hold a vote next week on a standalone bill to ensure troop pay.

But Johnson all but rejected the idea, arguing that the onus was on Senate Democrats to pass a GOP-led funding bill that would allow the military and others in the federal government to get paid on time.

Federal workers who lose pay during a government shutdown are typically entitled to this money as back pay when the shutdown ends.