Johnson rules out separate House vote to pay troops during shutdown

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appeared to rule out the possibility of bringing the House of Representatives back to Washington for a standalone vote on ensuring the military gets paid on time during the government shutdown.

Johnson pointed out to reporters at a news conference Wednesday that the House passed a federal funding bill last month that would have kept the troops paid and avoided the shutdown altogether, but argued it was now up to the Senate to pass the measure. The government shutdown is in its eighth day.

“I want everyone to listen to me very carefully. (House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.) and the House Democrats … are crying out to come back here and have another vote because some of them want this on the record and say they’re for paying the troops,” Johnson said.

“We’ve already had this vote. It’s called the (continuing resolution). Every Republican and at least one Democrat had the good sense to say, ‘Of course we want to keep the government running. Of course we want to pay our troops, our air traffic controllers, our Border Patrol agents, the TSA and everyone else. “We had this vote.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to the media outside the House after a vote at the Capitol in Washington, September 19, 2025. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The military is expected to be paid next Wednesday, but that money will be deferred if the government is still paralyzed.

A continuing resolution (CR) is an expansion of current federal funding levels intended to give lawmakers more time to reach a longer-term deal on government spending for the next fiscal year.

The GOP-led CR that passed the House would roughly hold federal funding levels steady through Nov. 21, with an additional $88 million in security spending for lawmakers, the White House and the judiciary.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, left, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, walk to speak to members of the media after a meeting at the White House in Washington on September 29, 2025. (Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

But that bill has stalled in the Senate, having failed five times so far, as Democrats continue to insist on tying any CR to an extension of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of 2025.

Republicans accused Democrats of holding Americans and the government hostage over partisan demands, while Democrats warned that the Republican Party would be responsible for rising health care costs for millions of Americans if enhanced COVID-era subsidies were allowed to expire.

The military is among several groups of federal government employees deemed “essential” during a shutdown, meaning they must continue working even if they miss their paychecks.

A soldier holds a drone as he marches during a military parade commemorating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. military in Washington on June 14, 2025. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

However, they are ready to recover the missed money in arrears once the closure is resolved.

In a private call between House Republicans and their leaders Saturday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., noted that Oct. 15 would be the next consecutive day in the ongoing standoff over the shutdown.

This is the military’s next paycheck, meaning it will be the first paycheck that U.S. troops won’t lose if the shutdown continues.