Amata Welcomes Announcement of Military Payday Despite Shutdown

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata welcomed the announcement that the federal government is meeting its payment obligation to the U.S. Armed Forces, despite the government shutdown.

“This is the first payday since the shutdown for our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, and Coast Guardsmen, and I’m happy for them that the administration has prioritized their pay despite the shutdown so that our dedicated military are not working without pay at this time,” said Congresswoman Amata. “I also very much hope that the Senate acts to restore government funding and end this unnecessary shutdown well before the next payday at the end of this month for our military families that depend on their well-earned paychecks.”

The Trump administration diverted funds that had not yet been spent in order to pay military personnel this time, but reportedly might not be able to do so again at the next pay period. While the Armed Forces were paid, hundreds of thousands of civilian federal employees are either furloughed or working unpaid, expecting future reimbursement of their scheduled pay. 

As September closed out without the 12 appropriations bills passed into law, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a clean seven-week extension of funding, called a Continuing Resolution (C.R.), often referred to as a “stopgap” bill. These have been commonly used in recent years to avoid shutdowns, and allow more time for major agreements on appropriations work. This time, Senate Democrats voted against cloture, requiring 60 votes, stalling the funding extension in the Senate unless five Senators were to decide to change their votes. Instead of the clean seven weeks extension, Senators who voted no are calling for the addition of $1.5 trillion over the next ten years to reopen government. 

“As to funding disagreements, bipartisan consensus should be built while the government is open and meeting it’s obligations,” concluded Congresswoman Amata. “This shutdown causes all sorts of needless uncertainty for people and businesses, delays in government grants, and puts pressure on all federal employees including our Service Members that they might have to work without pay while many have mortgages, bills, rent, loan obligations and more. The Senate should reopen government so that Congress can instead use this time for regular work on full-year appropriations.”

The House Appropriations Committee has passed all 12 appropriations bills in regular order, ahead of some recent years, and the Senate has completed work on eight of the 12 bills.

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