WASHINGTON: Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday he believes US military members will be paid at the end of the week, though he did not specify how the Trump administration will reconfigure funding as pain from the second-longest shutdown spreads nationwide.
The funding fight in Washington gained new urgency this week as millions of Americans face the prospect of losing food assistance, more federal workers miss their first full paycheck and recurring delays at airports snarl travel plans.
“We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now,” Vance told reporters after lunch with Senate Republicans at the Capitol. “We’ve got food stamp benefits that are set to run out in a week. We’re trying to keep as much open as possible. We just need the Democrats actually to help us out.
The vice president reaffirmed Republicans’ strategy of trying to pick off a handful of Senate Democrats to vote for stopgap funding to reopen the government. But nearly a month into the shutdown, it hasn’t worked. Just before Vance’s visit, a Senate vote on legislation to reopen the government failed for the 13th time.
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