--- title: How Long Will Troops Be Paid Amid the Shutdown? description: Active service members may start going without pay if a deal to end the government shutdown isn’t reached soon, politicians are warning. canonical: https://time.com/7328810/government-shutdown-military-pay-trump-congress/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-10-27T22:17:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2025-10-30T19:47:55.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Long Will Troops Be Paid Amid the Shutdown? og:description: Active service members may start going without pay if a deal to end the government shutdown isn’t reached soon. og:url: https://time.com/7328810/government-shutdown-military-pay-trump-congress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30a39c253bc7856c/6998cb23c8dcb4dba2b509b8/military-pay-government-shutdown.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Army Meets Its 2025 Recruitment Goals Ahead Of Schedule og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Long Will Troops Be Paid Amid the Shutdown? twitter:description: Active service members may start going without pay if a deal to end the government shutdown isn’t reached soon. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30a39c253bc7856c/6998cb23c8dcb4dba2b509b8/military-pay-government-shutdown.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Long Will the Trump Administration Be Able to Pay the Troops Amid the Shutdown? > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Updated: Oct 30, 2025 7:47 PM UTCPublished: Oct 27, 2025 10:17 PM UTC  U.S. Army soldiers conduct operations during combat training in Killeen, Texas, on June 03, 2025. U.S. Army soldiers conduct operations during combat training in Killeen, Texas, on June 03, 2025. Brandon Bell—Getty Images by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Updated: Oct 30, 2025 7:47 PM UTCPublished: Oct 27, 2025 10:17 PM UTC Active service members are set to receive their next paycheck on Friday as scheduled, but they may start going without pay if a deal to end the [government shutdown](https://time.com/7320516/government-shutdown-impact-federal-workers-airports-parks-mail/) isn’t reached soon, leaders in Washington are warning. The Office of Management and Budget confirmed to TIME on Thursday that it had found a total of $5.3 billion in the budget to pay troops on Oct. 31 as planned. The office did not respond to TIME’s request for more information. The last payday for service members was Oct. 15\. President Donald Trump [signed](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/national-security-presidential-memorandum-nspm-8/) a memorandum that day directing the federal government to pay active service members with any funds “that remain available for expenditure.” But it was unclear if the memorandum applied to the next scheduled payday on Friday, and politicians cast doubt over whether troops would be paid that day. House Speaker Mike Johnson, when asked if service members would receive paychecks later this week, [said](https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/government-shutdown-latest-senate-reconvenes-trump-asia/) on Monday that “we're not 100% sure.” "I do know the Administration and everybody is bending over backwards to try to figure that out, but I don't know the final analysis yet,” Johnson said. While troops will get their wages on Friday, leaders in Washington have stressed that if the shutdown doesn’t end soon, active service members may go unpaid in a couple weeks. “We were able to pay the military employees from excess funds at the Pentagon, middle of this month,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview on [CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan”](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/scott-bessent-treasury-secretary-face-the-nation-transcript-10-26-2025/) that aired on Sunday. “I think we’ll be able to pay them beginning in November. But by Nov. 15, our troops and service members who are willing to risk their lives aren’t going to be able to get paid. What an embarrassment.” **Read more:** [_Flight Delays Mount as Government Shutdown Leaves Air Traffic Controllers Working Without Pay_](https://time.com/7329683/government-shutdown-flight-delays-cancellations-air-traffick-controllers-pay/) If the shutdown hasn’t concluded by that date, it would be the [longest the U.S. has ever seen](https://time.com/7325137/government-shutdown-longest-history/)—by a good margin. That dubious distinction is currently held by the most recent shutdown, which occurred during Trump’s first term and lasted 34 days. The ongoing shutdown, now in its fourth week after [beginning on Oct. 1](https://time.com/7322164/government-shutdown-begins-donald-trump/), is already the second longest, and still has no clear endpoint in sight. On Thursday, Senate Democrats [rejected](https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5569779-bill-pay-military-essential-workers-shutdown/) a Republican-backed bill that would have paid active service members and other federal staffers who are being mandated to work during the shutdown. By law, federal employees are [guaranteed back pay](https://time.com/7323960/government-shutdown-trump-furlough-employees/) once a government shutdown ends, but the bill was intended to provide pay for those working in the interim. While some Democrats broke party ranks to vote for the bill, others argued that it would give the Trump Administration too much power to pick and choose which federal workers get paid and which don’t during the shutdown. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer [called](https://www.democrats.senate.gov/news/press-releases/leader-schumer-floor-remarks-on-republicans-unserious-proposal-that-would-hand-trump-power-to-decide-who-gets-paid-demanding-republicans-negotiate-to-end-the-shutdown-and-solve-the-healthcare-crisis) the Republican-backed bill a “ruse” that could end up extending the shutdown. “We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people’s livelihoods,” he said. Instead, Democrats supported a bill that would pay all federal employees and contractors. But Republicans sank the legislation. “Republicans are hell-bent on letting Trump pick winners and losers here, but every federal worker, servicemember, and federal contractor deserves to get paid,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat behind that bill, [said](https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?id=D8C676F2-A0DA-42A7-B642-2533A20FB435) in a statement. **Read more:** [_‘A Man-Made Disaster’: Food Banks and Experts Issue Grave Warning as SNAP Benefits Set to Run Out Amid Government Shutdown_](https://time.com/7328216/snap-benefits-food-stamps-halting-november-government-shutdown-impact/) Last week, the President announced that his Administration received an anonymous private donation of $130 million to help pay troops during the shutdown. Trump didn’t reveal the name of the person behind the donation, but the New York _Times_ [reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/us/politics/timothy-mellon-donation-troops.html) that billionaire Timothy Mellon was the private donor in question. According to the outlet, the federal government’s budget for the year requested about $600 billion in total military compensation. With more than 1.3 million active troops, the $130 million donation would come out to about $100 a service member, the _Times_ reported. Earlier this month, Trump [suggested](https://time.com/7323960/government-shutdown-trump-furlough-employees/) that some federal workers “don’t deserve to be taken care of” during the shutdown—a controversial remark that indicated that his Administration is considering denying back pay to thousands of furloughed employees once the government reopens. An Administration official told TIME at the time that a new legal analysis from the White House claimed furloughed workers are not entitled to back pay when they return, apparently contradicting a law Trump signed in 2019\. If it does go down that path, it’s unclear if the Administration would seek to withhold back pay from active service members, given its efforts so far to continue paying them during the shutdown. On Tuesday, the President spoke to troops in Japan, thanking them for their service and telling them that he supports a pay raise for all service members, news outlets [reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/us/politics/trump-japan-national-guard-us-cities.html). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7328810/government-shutdown-military-pay-trump-congress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7328810/government-shutdown-military-pay-trump-congress/"},"headline":"How Long Will the Trump Administration Be Able to Pay the Troops Amid the Shutdown?","datePublished":"2025-10-27T22:17:28.000Z","dateModified":"2025-10-30T19:47:55.000Z","description":"Active service members may start going without pay if a deal to end the government shutdown isn’t reached soon, politicians are warning.","url":"https://time.com/7328810/government-shutdown-military-pay-trump-congress/","keywords":["Budget","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30a39c253bc7856c/6998cb23c8dcb4dba2b509b8/military-pay-government-shutdown.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chantelle Lee","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30a39c253bc7856c/6998cb23c8dcb4dba2b509b8/military-pay-government-shutdown.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Army Meets Its 2025 Recruitment Goals Ahead Of Schedule","caption":"Army Meets Its 2025 Recruitment Goals Ahead Of Schedule","creditText":"Brandon Bell—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/budget/","name":"Budget"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7328810/government-shutdown-military-pay-trump-congress/","name":"How Long Will the Trump Administration Be Able to Pay the Troops Amid the Shutdown?"}}]}] ```