President Donald Trump on Saturday directed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to pay the 1.3 million active duty troops on October 15 even though they would not normally be paid while the government is shutting down, using funding earmarked for research and development that has not been allocated in order to do so.
The government has been shut down since October 1 after the House passed a continuing resolution to fund the government at currently legislated levels, but Senate Democrats blocked its passage in that chamber while demanding rollbacks of changes made in the One Big Beautiful Bill over the summer.
“If nothing is done, because of ‘Leader’ Chuck Schumer and the Democrats, our Brave Troops will miss the paychecks they are rightfully due on October 15th,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “That is why I am using my authority, as Commander in Chief, to direct our Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to use all available funds to do this.”
The Office of Management and Budget has let Congress know that it will use the $8 billion in funding to pay the military.
The move comes as last week House Democrats sort of tried to approve funding to pay the military by bringing it up for a unanimous consent vote during a pro forma session.
House Republicans blocked the attempt by Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-MD) when House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-IL) gaveled out the session before she could finish reading her request.
Republicans did this for two reasons: first, they saw it as an attempt to save face while still forcing their demands for another $1.5 trillion in new spending through Congress in an attempt to undo the progress made in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Second, as House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) pointed out afterward, Elfreth's request didn't follow the protocols for bringing up legislation, so it wouldn't have worked even if she had been allowed to finish it.
"You can't do that in a pro forma session. So again, it's just to get attention," Emmer said, calling the attempt a political stunt of "gargantuan proportions."
While the two sides squabble in Congress over whether to come out of the shutdown, Trump did what he had to do to get the military paid, which shows a lot of leadership in my opinion.
He also reallocated other funding to keep WIC, a food program for women during pregnancy and while they have very young children, operating during the shutdown.
So much for the narrative that he is a cold, unfeeling tyrant who wants to see people starve.
Democrats need to come to terms with the fact that elections have dictated their lack of power.
It's unfair to hold the government hostage to get concessions that they could never have gotten otherwise, given the power that they now have.
They are getting the blame for anything bad that happens as a result of the shutdown, and they know it. Their downward spiral will continue until they realize how they are shooting themselves in the foot over and over with their radical left leanings.
