President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday a standalone bill to pay military service members during a government shutdown "probably will happen," even though House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he wouldn't call for such a vote.
"Yeah, that probably will happen," Trump said.
"We don't have to worry about it yet. That's a long time.
"You know what one week is for me? An eternity. One week for me is a long time," he said.
"We'll take care of it. Our military is always going to be taken care of."
About 1.3 million active-duty military will start missing paychecks if Congress does not pass a bill or the shutdown does not end by Oct. 15.
Earlier, Johnson told reporters he won't call a separate vote, because the House "already had that vote" in the continuing resolution, or CR, and suggested it's now up to Senate Democrats to get to work.
"Of course, we want to pay our troops and our air traffic controllers and our border patrol agents and TSA [Transportation Security Administration], and everybody else," Johnson said.
"We did have that vote in the House."
Johnson has held a series of briefings in which he has attacked Democrats for failing to approve a clean stopgap funding measure to keep the government open while negotiations on federal spending continue.
"Democrats claim they want to negotiate, but that is already happening in a bipartisan, bicameral fashion," he said.
Johnson suggested it would be a simple process for the Senate Democrats to approve the House-passed stopgap and reopen government to allow more time for a complete spending plan to be approved.
In a letter, 10 House Democrats called on Johnson to bring back the House back before next Wednesday, while Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., called on House Republican leadership to pass legislation ensuring troops are paid during the shutdown.
"Military pay should not be held hostage due to Washington's dysfunction," Kiggans said in a statement.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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