Matt Gaetz proposes bill to safeguard service member pay in event of shutdown
Ryan King
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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) proposed legislation Monday to preserve payments to service members if a government shutdown takes place.
The bill, Armed Services Always Paid Act, mandates that members continue to get paid without delay and comes amid a simmering standoff between Republicans and the Biden administration over the debt ceiling.
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“While President Joe Biden and lawmakers in Congress negotiate the debt limit plan, I hope we can all agree that our military service members should be paid without delay, regardless of how long discussions may take,” Gaetz said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner.
His legislation is co-sponsored by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).
In January, the federal government bumped up against the $31.4 trillion debt limit on its borrowing authority. In the meantime, the Treasury Department has deployed “extraordinary” measures to keep funding flowing to government programs, but Congress has been deadlocked over a permanent fix.
Should the Treasury’s measures run out as it is projected to between June and August, certain government programs would stop receiving funding because Congress has budgeted the fiscal year based partly on deficit spending.
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has demanded any increase in the debt limit be paired with a clawback in government spending. President Joe Biden has demanded a clean bill without any strings attached. So far, neither side has shown signs of blinking.
Last week, McCarthy rolled out his more specific requests, which feature a slew of cuts such as pushing federal spending to 2022 levels and capping annual increases at roughly 1% with a carve-out for the Pentagon. McCarthy estimates his plan will save $4.5 trillion over the next decade, though official estimates have not yet come out.