WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to pay military members Friday by using a mix of legislative and Defense Department funds, according to an official with the White House Office of Management and Budget.
It would be the second time the White House has been able to avoid missing a pay period for troops during the government shutdown, now in its 30th day. Service members are considered essential federal employees and are required to work during funding lapses, but essential workers typically aren’t paid during shutdowns.
About $2.5 billion from the military housing fund part of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, enacted this year, will be tapped for Friday’s paychecks, according to the OMB official. In addition, $1.4 billion from the Pentagon’s research and development account and $1.4 billion from its procurement account will be used, the official said.
That would bring the total to about $5.3 billion, which is still less than the $6.5 billion that was drawn upon to pay for troops’ paychecks earlier this month. It’s unclear why there’s a difference in the amounts, and the OMB official didn’t respond to a request for comment on that particular point.
Base pay and allowance for the military costs roughly $6.5 billion each pay period, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Todd Harrison previously told NBC News.
Axios first reported on the administration’s paycheck plan for Friday.
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“President Trump is continuing to make good on his promise to take care of the troops despite the fact Democrats have shut down the government and are fine with our bravest men and women getting no pay,” a Pentagon official told NBC News.
The Defense Department recently accepted an anonymous $130 million donation to pay the troops during the shutdown, prompting some Democrats to raise concerns about the legality and ethics surrounding the move.
Earlier this week, on Capitol Hill, Vice President JD Vance said: “We believe that we can continue to pay the troops on Friday. Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to pay everybody, because we’ve been handed a very bad hand by the Democrats.”
He added: “We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now, but we’ve got food stamp benefits that are set to run out in a week. We’re trying to keep as much open as possible. We just need the Democrats to actually help us out.”
Congressional Democrats have insisted that Republicans agree to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act to prevent premiums from doubling or even tripling for many Americans next year before voting to reopen the government. Republicans have argued that negotiations on that topic should take place after funding is restored for the entire federal government.
The Senate last week failed to advance a Republican measure that would pay active-duty service members and other federal workers deemed essential during the shutdown. Senate Democrats offered an alternative measure that would pay all federal workers, but it also fell short of the votes needed to advance.
Most federal workers have been furloughed during the shutdown, while others have been required to work without pay until the government reopens. Both groups are expected to be paid in full at the conclusion of the shutdown, which started Oct. 1.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who blames Democrats for lapses in pay, has repeatedly rejected efforts to call the House back into session to vote on measure that could fund critical parts of the government, saying Thursday that the “rifle shot bills that you keep hearing about deviates from the goal” to reopen the government in its entirety.
Both Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., have shown a similar reluctance toward passing individual bills that would fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps, which provides food assistance to more than 40 million people across the country.
While Democrats have urged the Trump administration to release $5 billion in contingency funding to prevent SNAP benefits from drying up Saturday, Johnson said this week that there was “no such legal avenue” for the president to dip into contingency funding for SNAP because the program’s statutory language did not allow it.
Zoë Richards contributed.
