Vice President J.D. Vance confirmed that U.S. troops will receive their paychecks on Friday despite the government shutdown, which has persisted for nearly a month. “We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now,” Vance stated. He highlighted that food stamp benefits are set to expire in a week and emphasized efforts to maintain operations while urging cooperation from Democrats.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration allocated $8 billion from unobligated research and development funds to cover military payroll on October 15. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted that the Department of War has sufficient unobligated funding to pay service members through October but warned that by November 15, troops may face delays in receiving payments.
Approximately 334,900 civilian employees at the Department of War were scheduled for furloughs during the shutdown, according to a Pentagon contingency plan. Vance acknowledged the challenges, stating, “We believe we can continue paying the troops on Friday. Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to pay everybody, because we’ve been handed a very bad hand by the Democrats.” He linked the situation to broader federal workforce layoffs.
Republicans have focused on persuading Senate Democrats to support stopgap funding to reopen the government, but efforts have stalled. A recent vote on reopening legislation failed for the 13th time. Meanwhile, the American Federation of Government Employees urged Congress to pass a clean continuing resolution to end the shutdown, calling for immediate action to ensure full pay for workers.
Democratic senators, including Virginia’s Tim Kaine, demanded guarantees from the White House to prevent mass layoffs and pushed for extensions of health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. “We’ve got to get a deal with Donald Trump,” Kaine said.