Thune to force Democrats to vote on paying the troops during the shutdown

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) plans to force Democrats to vote next week on legislation to pay more than 1 million military service members during the government shutdown, doubling down on his strategy of highlighting the plight of military families, according to Senate GOP sources.

Thune on Wednesday put a bill sponsored by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to pay members of the military during the shutdown on the Senate calendar, setting it up for a vote as soon as next week.

President Trump has directed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds” to make sure active-duty service members and their families don’t miss paychecks during the shutdown and Pentagon officials have identified $8 billion in unspent research, development and technology funds to cover troops’ pay during the early part of the shutdown.

Johnson’s bill would ensure that service members continue to get paid once those unobligated funds identified by the administration run out.

Thune told Politico in a hallway interview that the bill would give Democrats a “chance to vote to pay the military next week.”

The GOP leader forced Democrats to vote Thursday on the $852 billion annual Defense appropriations bill, which Democrats blocked on a vote of 50 to 44. It needed 60 votes to advance.

Thune slammed Democrats for blocking the bill which had passed out of the Appropriations Committee with strong bipartisan support in July.

“Democrats just voted against the bill that would actually pay the troops. You have to ask the question, ‘Why?’ Mr. President,” Thune said on the floor after the vote.

Thune, citing a recent news story, said Democrats blocked funding for the military because they didn’t want to relinquish their leverage during the shutdown.  

“I mean, who really cares, right, if the troops are paid as long as the Democrats are able to get what they want?" he said.

Thursday's vote on the defense bill caught Democrats by surprise and some centrist Democrats said they would have voted to proceed to the measure if they were guaranteed that it would be paired with the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill, which funds some of their priorities. 

“It’s always been unacceptable to Democrats to do the defense bill without other bills that have so many things that are important to the American people in terms of health care, in terms of housing, in terms of safety,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) told reporters before Thursday's vote.