Guardians of Pedophiles': Federal workers pay

Senate to vote on federal employee, troop pay next week

Sen. Ron Johnson is spearheading a bill to pay federal workers who are required to work during the shutdown.

Jordain Carney

Senate Republicans will vote next week to pay some federal government employees, including active duty members of the military, as the shutdown drags into its fourth week.

Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that he will bring up legislation spearheaded by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) that would pay “excepted” employees — those who are required to work even though the government is shut down.

Thune has already taken an initial step to make the bill available for a vote. He could formally move to tee it up as soon as Monday, setting up a vote for later in the week where it will need 60 votes to advance.

“That will be the first opportunity and then we’ll see from there,” Thune said.

Thune characterized the bill as giving Democrats a “chance to vote to pay the military next week.”

The decision to bring up federal employee pay comes as Republicans have expressed wide interest to act on troop pay. Thune has, until this point, has insisted the best way to ensure troops got paid was for Democrats to reopen the government.

This new move will give an outlet for Republicans who want to be on the record in support of paying active-duty members of the military –—and also dare Democrats to block it as they remain dug in on their shutdown demands for a bipartisan negotiation on health care. The administration recently moved funding around to get troops their Oct. 15 paycheck.

Seven Republicans introduced the bill with Johnson, including Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who recently rolled out his own troop pay bill.

The shift in strategy comes as there’s no sign that the shutdown will end any time soon and frustrations run high in the Senate.

Democrats blocked advancing a stand-alone Defense Department funding bill on Thursday, roughly a week after the Senate passed a sweeping defense policy bill. Thune said he had privately indicated to Democrats that he would attach other appropriations bills — including priorities for Democrats. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer noted earlier Thursday that Republicans didn’t yet have unity in their own ranks to do that.

Democrats also blocked a House-passed bill to fund the government through Nov. 21 for a 10th time. The Senate will vote again on the stopgap bill next week.