Republicans’ decision to abandon a congressional spending plan will cost about 2.1 million troops their pay over the Christmas holidays unless some agreement is reached before Friday’s deadline to prevent a government shutdown, the Pentagon warned.
Even if they do not get paid, those troops will be required to report for duty both overseas and at home, Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder has said.
Without an agreement to fund the government, troops will not receive their end-of-month pay packets and reservists drilling after Friday will not be paid, he said.
In addition, about 365,000 US Defence Department civilians will be required to work without pay if the government is shut down, according to defence officials. Most are deemed essential because they work in critical national security jobs. An additional 435,500 civilians would be furloughed.
The military payroll is just one of thousands of federal accounts that would be affected, but one of the most visible.
Congress was on the verge of passing a stopgap measure on Wednesday to keep the government running when President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk used Mr Musk’s social media platform X to attack the 1,500-page Bill over its unrelated spending add-ons and threaten any Republican politician who supported its passage.
Support for the Bill quickly failed.
House Republicans were scrambling late on Thursday to get an agreement on an alternative.
“I think a shutdown deprives the military of a paycheck,” Andy Ogles of Tennessee told reporters as he walked into House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office late on Thursday. “So the last thing we want to do is shut down the government.”
House Democrats, however, had already begun to say the new slimmed-down spending plan was untenable.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Mr Trump was aware that his stand on the Bill could result in the military not being paid.
Other civilian personnel deemed not essential to immediate military operations will be furloughed, Mr Ryder said.
In previous shutdowns Congress has worked to secure troop pay, but not everyone was covered. In 2019, members of the US coast guard were left out and went more than a month without pay.
“A lapse in funding will cause serious disruptions across the defence department and is still avoidable,” Mr Ryder said.
On Friday, hours before the start of a federal government shutdown, Mr Trump doubled down on his insistence that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal — and if not, let the closures “start now”.
Mr Trump issued his latest demand as House Speaker Mike Johnson arrived early at the Capitol, meeting some of the most conservative Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus who helped sink Mr Trump’s Bill in a spectacular Thursday evening flop.
The clock is now racing toward the midnight deadline to fund government operations.
“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now,” Mr Trump posted on social media.
The incoming Trump administration vows to slash the federal budget and sack thousands of employees. Mr Trump himself sparked the longest government shutdown in history in his first term at the White House, the monthlong closures over the 2018-19 Christmas holiday and New Year period.
More importantly for the president-elect is his demand for pushing the thorny debt ceiling debate off the table before he returns to the White House.
The federal debt limit expires on January 1, and Mr Trump does not want the first months of his new administration saddled with tough negotiations in Congress to lift the nation’s borrowing capacity. It gives Democrats, who will be in the minority next year, leverage.
“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous debt ceiling,” Mr Trump posted — increasing his demand for a now five-year debt limit increase. “Without this, we should never make a deal.”
Mr Johnson is racing behind closed doors to prevent a shutdown. Mr Trump, and billionaire ally Mr Musk, unleashed their opposition — and social media army — on the first plan Johnson presented, which was a 1,500-page bipartisan compromise he struck with Democrats that included 100 billion dollars (£79 billion) in disaster aid for hard-hit states, but did not address the debt ceiling situation.
A Trump-backed second plan, Thursday’s slimmed down 116-page Bill with his preferred two-year debt limit increase into 2027, failed in a monumental defeat, rejected in an evening vote by most Democrats as an unserious effort — but also some three dozen Republicans.
On Friday morning, Vice President-elect JD Vance arrived early at the speaker’s office at the Capitol, where a group of the most hardline Republican holdouts were meeting Mr Johnson. The speaker has insisted on finding a way forward.
Government workers have already been told to prepare for a federal shutdown which would send millions of employees into the holiday season without pay.
US President Joe Biden has discussed the potential shutdown with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday.
“There’s still time,” Ms Jean-Pierre said, to avoid a partial government shutdown.
She said Republicans created the situation and are responsible for fixing it.
“Republicans blew up this deal. They did, and they need to fix this,” Ms Jean-Pierre said.
