Rejects pay plan

Senate rejects pay plan for some federal workers

Democrats voted down the proposal from Sen. Ron Johnson after putting out their own plan.

By Katherine Tully-McManus and Jordain Carney

The Senate on Thursday rejected a plan to pay active-duty members of the military and select government workers for the duration of the federal funding lapse.

It’s the latest gambit from Republican senators to coax Democrats to the table amid the partisan shutdown standoff — and put Democrats on record against paying active-duty members of the military.

Lawmakers voted 54-45 against advancing legislation from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), which would keep paychecks flowing to the troops and some federal employees who are not furloughed during the shutdown. Three Democrats broke rank to support the effort: Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

Federal employees are guaranteed back pay once the government reopens, but Johnson’s bill would aim to ease the burden for those who are working without pay in the meantime.

“Tomorrow, federal workers will miss a full paycheck because of the Democrat shutdown,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said ahead of the vote Thursday. “Do they think people working ought to get paid?”

But Democrats continue to demand that Republicans negotiate with them to end the shutdown and extend soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act subsidies to prevent massive premium hikes. Until that happens, they are refusing en masse to block other legislation intended to soothe some of the shutdown’s biggest political pain points.

Many Democrats also warn that the Johnson bill would cause considerable harm, as it would empower President Donald Trump to pick and choose who gets to be paid and who must remain on furlough without a paycheck. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dismissed the GOP measure as a “ruse” that could end up prolonging the shutdown.

“We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people’s livelihoods,” Schumer added.

Democrats were instead backing a bill from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) that would pay all federal workers during the shutdown — furloughed employees, servicemembers and contractors. It also would bar the Trump administration from using “reductions in force” orders to fire workers for the duration of the funding lapse.

“Republicans are hell-bent on letting Trump pick winners and losers here, but every federal worker, servicemember, and federal contractor deserves to get paid,” Van Hollen said in a statement Thursday.

Democrats asked for unanimous consent Thursday to pass their proposal on the Senate floor, which Van Hollen introduced less than an hour before the scheduled vote on Johnson’s bill. That effort was blocked by Republicans.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) also sought unanimous consent approval for his own federal employee pay bill, that would have provided a one-time appropriation to pay servicemembers, federal employees and contractors missing paychecks during the shutdown. His request was also defeated by Republicans. He and Van Hollen supported each other’s bills.

“Let’s protect our servicemembers and our federal employees, not put other stuff in the bill, just pay them so they can meet their bills as they arise,” Peters said.

The debate over the partisan federal pay bills came as there remain few, if any, signs of a quick offramp to end the government shutdown that’s been ongoing for 23 days. The Senate, meanwhile, is set to leave town Thursday afternoon until Monday, with Trump on the precipice of heading overseas.

The vote related to the Johnson bill also was the latest development in the shifting GOP strategy around the shutdown. Thune had insisted for weeks that the best way to ensure troops got paid was for Democrats to just vote on the House-passed, seven-week stopgap, but that message isn’t getting through.

Last week, Thune sought Democratic support to move ahead on a standalone Defense Department funding bill, but Democrats blocked it. Going forward, Republicans could as soon as next week force votes on military pay, pay for air traffic controllers and TSA employees and funding key nutrition benefits ahead of a Nov. 1 cutoff.