Government shutdown will have lasting effects on National Guard, advocates say

WASHINGTON– As the government shutdown drags on, military supporters warn of long-term effects on National Guard troops and their readiness, while the military services grapple with an inability to fully release active duty service members.

“The shutdown has been particularly hard on the 433,000 members of the Army and Air National Guard,” Francis McGinn, president of the National Guard Association, told reporters Monday.

The Trump administration has made a public effort to lessen the impact on active-duty military personnel by shifting money to ensure they receive two paychecks since the shutdown began Oct. 1. But McGinn said more than 30,000 technicians — full-time civilian government employees who also serve in uniform — have not been paid since late September.

These technicians, members of the National Guard who typically provide training to their units or maintain equipment, “are essential to our daily operations and readiness,” McGinn said.

To add to the pressures, the Trump administration has sent National Guard troops to patrol the streets of several major US cities, including more than 2,300 deployed to Washington, DC.

The “damage” also goes beyond paychecks and involves more than a month of canceled schools, training and maintenance opportunities that troops will struggle to make up when the government reopens, said John Hashem, executive director of the Reserve Organization of America, an advocacy group for Guard and Reserve troops.

“It’s not just ‘We’ll take it again next month,’ it’s that we’re in turmoil now – I just can’t send you back to school if I had to take you out of it. I just can’t prepare you for the next exercise because now, probably, the exercise has been completely changed,” Hachem said.

McGinn added that “there are just thousands and thousands of hours” of vehicle and aircraft maintenance that National Guard troops will have to catch up on.

Hashem and McGinn said they also worried about the impact the closure would have on morale and retention. McGinn said tech workers especially feel “completely demoralized” and “betrayed by the government.”

At the same time, the military faces a growing number of active-duty soldiers who must be discharged, but with no one to produce the official documents needed to certify the end of their service.

The Air Force is “legally prohibited from requiring the government to pay costs associated with certain voluntary and administrative separations occurring in November,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

A Navy official confirmed that a form containing details of a person’s service, including length, occupational specialties and awards earned, could not be finalized and final pay could not be paid.

The form is crucial in the process because it signifies the official end of service and attests to the type of discharge a servicemember received — a key factor in determining eligibility for benefits such as the GI Bill or Department of Veterans Affairs disability compensation.

The Navy and Air Force said they are allowing affected service members to opt for a temporary extension of their service to wait out the shutdown and ensure they do not experience pay or benefit gaps.

An Army official said “soldiers on separation within 45 days will be affected by expiration of appropriations and government shutdown” but would not confirm whether the service was offering voluntary or involuntary extensions.

Officials from all three branches spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The Marine Corps did not respond to questions about the effects of the shutdown, citing the government shutdown.

Burt Field, Air Chief & The Space Forces Association has called for legislation to prevent future shutdowns from affecting military pay. After the government reopens, Congress should “pass a bill that will not allow this to happen again for our military, civilians and Americans,” he told reporters Monday.