Troops will miss paychecks next week without action on shutdown

By BEN FINLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Heather Campbell lost her job at a food bank over the summer due to federal funding cuts. Her husband is an officer in the Air Force, but now faces missing his next paycheck due to the government shutdown.

If Washington lawmakers don’t intervene, Campbell’s husband won’t get paid Wednesday. Because the couple does not have the savings to cover all their expenses, they hope to survive on their credit cards to pay the mortgage and feed their three children, accumulating debt as the political impasse drags on.

“You’re asking us to risk our lives or the people we love to risk their lives,” said Campbell, 39, who lives outside Montgomery, Ala., near Maxwell Air Force Base. “And you’re not even going to give us our salary. What? There’s a lot of broken trust there.”

The country’s third shutdown in 12 years is once again raising the level of anxiety among service members and their families as those in uniform work without pay. Even though they will receive back pay once the standoff ends, many military families are living paycheck to paycheck. During previous shutdowns, Congress passed legislation to ensure soldiers continue to receive their pay, but time is running out before they lose their first paycheck in less than a week.

“There are so many things that Congress can’t agree on right now,” said Kate Horrell, wife of a Navy veteran whose company in Washington, D.C., provides financial advice to military families. “I don’t want to assume they’ll be able to agree on that.”

Paying troops sees support, but unclear when deal could be reached

Asked if he would support a bill to pay the troops, President Donald Trump said, “It probably will happen.”

“We will take care of it,” Trump said Wednesday. “We will always take care of our soldiers. »

Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Virginia Republican and former Navy helicopter pilot, introduced a measure to maintain military and Coast Guard pay, and she has bipartisan co-sponsors.

The House is closed until next week, leaving two days to act before payday on Wednesday.

Amanda Scott, whose husband is an Air Force officer in Colorado, said the uncertainty goes beyond the stress of just getting by: It reduces the military’s ability to retain the best people and their will to fight.

“How prepared and mortal are you if you don’t know if you can feed your family? said Scott, 33, of Colorado Springs, who works for a defense contractor and volunteers to advocate for military families. “Many of these military personnel are highly trained and can earn much more money in the civilian sector. »

Help is available for military personnel, but it is not enough for some families

Support is available to military families through nonprofit and charitable organizations. For example, some financial institutions offer zero-interest loans, while each military branch has a relief organization.

But Campbell said she and her husband in Alabama couldn’t apply for a payday loan because they were refinancing their home. They don’t have a substantial emergency fund because they were paying off their student loans and moved several times in recent years to military posts. It was often difficult for her to find stable employment and look after her children.

“It’s really hard to build savings on one income,” Campbell said. “I don’t know many military families that have a month’s income set aside just in case, let alone several months.”

Jen Cluff, whose husband recently left the Air Force, said her family benefited from a food assistance program during the 2019 shutdown. But even the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, which helps more than 6 million low-income mothers and young children, would run out of federal money within two weeks unless the shutdown ends, experts say.

“We earned so little and had three young children,” said Cluff, 42, of San Antonio. “We were definitely a family that had very little margin of safety. »

If Congress hadn’t passed a law to pay the troops during the last lockdown, missing more than two paychecks “would have been catastrophic for us,” she said.

“Resentment can grow quickly,” Cluff said of the shutdown, adding that “the general public, and many in government, really don’t understand the daily sacrifices our military and their families make for our country.”