If Congress doesn’t do the job that the previous Congress was legally required to do prior to October of last year, the
Department of Defense will have no legal authority to pay troops after the 8th of April when funding expires. Keep in mind that the people who should have passed a budget when it was due will get paid regardless of whether the government “shuts down.” However, it’s likely us troops won’t.
In 1995, when the government shut down, Congress passed a measure to exempt the troops and ensure they got paid. At the time we weren’t even at war and Congress found it important enough to ensure we still got paid – especially since we were still required to come to work. Today, our troops are sacrificing a lot more than we did in 1995, but they face the very real possibility that they won’t get paid on time. Rest assured, troops would get backpay, but that doesn’t help a Soldier living check to check with bills due. Active and Reserve military members will be paid on time for pay earned prior to the expiration of the CRA — approximately half of their normal mid-month payment. Any back pay will not include fees or late payments for bills that are either paid late or not at all as a result of Congressional action.
Troops in combat will not get their combat pay. If any troops are killed after 8 April without a CR being passed, their benefits will not kick in to their families. According to the Defense Finance and Accounting System:
Active and Reserve military members will be paid on time for pay earned prior to the expiration of the CRA (midnight April
— approximately half of their normal mid-month payment. Active duty military and on-duty reservists cannot be paid for duty performed after the CRA expired, until additional legislation is enacted. Once another CRA or an appropriations act is signed into law, normal disbursement of pay will resume for pay earned after employees return to work. Military members who perform duty during the shutdown will be entitled to retroactive payments.
Many service members pay their bills by allotment and some companies require direct payments to qualify for loans. While I’m hoping that these companies will understand that delays are beyond our troops’ control, I can’t help but think that our troops are going to be affected with additional fees when their allotted payments “bounce” if no budget is passed by end of month when they are paid. It’s important to understand that allotments shouldn’t be affected unless the “shutdown” lasts until 1 May.
Another possible impact on Soldiers would be for those that are currently on temporary duty. They would not get reimbursed for any portion of their training that occurred after 8 April. This is a slightly smaller problem for our troops, since they are required to pay for all travel-related expenses with a government travel card. However, if for some reason, they paid for their travel and TDY expenses with a personal credit card, they will not be reimbursed for that until a budget or CR is passed.
Finally, the next big impact is training and travel that is scheduled to occur AFTER 8 April. As of right now, this travel cannot be funded or approved. Commands that opt to send troops to their training gamble that something will be passed by the time the training is over or they simply have to cancel the training. Much of this training is essential in preparation of an upcoming deployment, like the one I’m on now. Any orders with start dates after 8 April are not being approved and commands are being forced to make tough decisions about what training is more important. I’m lucky. My training ends tomorrow, prior to the furlough. However, I have more training that I cannot attend until a budget is passed for the military. Regardless of whether that training happens, we will still deploy when we are supposed to. Some Soldiers will probably just not be properly trained for that deployment! Thankfully, our troops are resilient and we will make it happen. It just adds an additional level of risk when the formal training doesn’t happen.
Once another CRA or an appropriations act is signed into law, normal disbursement of pay will resume for pay earned after employees return to work. Excepted employees who perform duty during the shutdown will be entitled to retroactive payments, as will servicemembers. For furloughed employees, Congress will have to provide authority for retroactive payments to be made.
I hope that our elected officials add some sort of language that would provide troops with protection from additional fees from businesses as a result of congressional inaction. If you’re a family member or a Soldier and looking for answers to more questions, please check out the DFAS website.
