House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Monday he opposes a Senate Republican bill to extend pay to troops and some federal workers during the government shutdown.
Why it matters: Jeffries’ opposition suggests the legislation would have a tough time passing the House if it makes it out of the Senate.
- At issue for Democrats is that the bill only pays those workers who have not been furloughed as part of the government shutdown.
- Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters Monday that he would bring the bill up for a vote in the House if it passes the Senate.
Driving the news: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) placed the Shutdown Fairness Act on the Senate calendar last week, teeing it up for a vote as soon as this week.
- The bill would allow government funding to go to providing backpay and ongoing wages to military servicemembers and essential federal workers.
- Thune has signaled he wants to put the bill up for a vote in part to squeeze Senate Democrats after they voted down a different military pay bill last week.
What they’re saying: “It’s my understanding that that is not a comprehensive bill that actually is designed to reopen the government while at the same time addressing the issues that need to be confronted,” Jeffries said at a press conference.
- “It’s not legislation that I support,” he continued, “because it appears to be more like a political ploy to pick and choose giving Donald Trump discretion which employees should be compensated.”
- “All employees should be compensated. And that will happen when we reopen the government,” he said.
Between the lines: Trump has been paying the military by diverting previously appropriated funding for Pentagon research and development, something Democrats say is illegal but have not fought strongly.
- But the administration has also infuriated Democrats by using the shutdown as an opportunity to go further than simple furloughs, issuing mass layoffs aimed at downsizing the federal government.
- Democrats have in turn accused the administration of overstepping their constitutional limits and seizing powerful rightfully afforded to Congress.
Editorial Disclaimer:The news articles published on this website are not owned or created by us directly. We aggregate and publish news content using publicly available news feeds, and each article includes a source credit or link to the original publisher at the bottom of the post.
If any website or content owner finds that their material has been included here and does not wish for their content to appear on our platform, please contact us at [email protected] . Upon receiving your request, we will promptly remove your site from our content feed and database.
We value and respect the rights of all content creators and strive to ensure proper attribution for every piece of content shared.