Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that service members will miss paychecks by Nov. 15 if the government shutdown stretches on, despite the Trump administration’s previous assurances that members of the military will be paid amid the funding lapse.
“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,” Bessent said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
President Trump directed the Pentagon to use unspent research and development funds to pay the military earlier this month, with around $8 billion in funds from the previous fiscal year identified to cover the mid-month paychecks. But officials have warned that the move was a temporary fix, and that members of the military risked missing their next paychecks at the end of the month, and beyond, if the shutdown continues.
Bessent suggested that members of the military will receive their upcoming paycheck, but he warned that if the shutdown continues, the U.S. would be unable to pay the service members by mid-November.
“What an embarrassment,” Bessent said, putting the blame on Democratic leaders in Congress who he claimed are “worried about their primaries, and not the American people.”
Democrats and Republicans have been locked in a stalemate over how to fund the government for weeks as Democrats have demanded an extension of health insurance tax credits as a condition for reopening the government. Meanwhile, Republicans have been clear that they are willing to discuss the health care issue, but only once the government reopens, despite Democrats’ repeated requests for negotiations.
Asked about the possibility of a meeting between the president and leaders in Congress after a request from Democrats last week, Bessent said “I don’t know what good it does.”
“This is a Democratic-led boycott, and I’m just not sure what they’re doing,” Bessent added.
The treasury secretary warned that the shutdown is “starting to affect the economy,” urging moderate Democrats to “be heroes” by breaking with their party to vote in favor of the House-passed measure to reopen the government that has fallen short of the 60 votes needed a dozen times in the Senate.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also appeared on “Face the Nation” on Sunday and said “there is an urgent need to reopen the government.”
“Which is why we continue to demand that Republicans sit at the negotiating table so we can enact a spending agreement that’s bipartisan in nature,” Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said. “That’s what we’ve called for from the very beginning.”
On the health care issue, Jeffries said Democrats “need action, not simply words” or a “wing and a prayer promise” from Republicans.
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