Can Trump pay troops without Congress? Some Democrats don’t think so
President Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday to pay service members by utilizing previously appropriated funds during the ongoing government shutdown, seeking to sidestep gridlock in Congress.
The move also takes some pressure off House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who was facing growing demands to call the House back to vote on Republican-sponsored legislation that would ensure troops are paid during the shutdown.
Some Democrats and policy analysts say the move is likely illegal.
Romina Boccia, the director of budget and entitlement policy at the libertarian Cato Institute, told The Hill on Monday that “technically speaking, Congress can rescind unobligated balances and repurpose them,” but “for the administration to repurpose funds unilaterally is likely illegal.”
“An unobligated balance does not give the administration the right to use the money as it wishes,” Boccia said. “If Congress wants to ensure that America’s troops will be paid during the ongoing government shutdown, Congress should pass a bill that authorizes funding to pay the troops.”
Trump announced the move on Truth Social after Johnson had teased executive action, just days before the Oct. 15 deadline when service members were set to start missing paychecks.
“We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
A Defense official said Saturday that the department identified “approximately $8 billion of unobligated research development testing and evaluation funds (RDTE) from the prior fiscal year that will be used to issue mid-month paychecks to service members” if the government is not reopened by Oct. 15.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) was asked Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” whether the administration’s plan was legal.
“Well, probably not. Again, we just had a little conversation about the White House’s understanding of United States law, which is pretty tentative to say the best,” he said.
“I think to pay the military during a shutdown would require legislation; the Speaker of the House has taken that off the table,” Himes added. “So, I mean, is Donald Trump going to say a bunch of stuff? Yes, he’s going to say a bunch of stuff. But I don’t see anything moving.”
Still, there was little public pushback against the move Monday, and it’s unclear if Democrats will try to stop a maneuver to pay military members, regardless of their views on its legality.
Johnson has argued that the stand-alone military pay bill, which was introduced last month by Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), would allow Democrats to avoid accountability for their votes opposing the Republican proposal to fund the government at current levels through mid-November.
“We’re now on Day 13 of the Democrats’ [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer [N.Y.] shutdown. This marks the third week that Democrats have blocked paychecks to our troops. They blocked pay for 2.2 million federal workers, and they held critical services that the American people rely upon in limbo. At least they’ve tried to block those checks,” Johnson said during a Monday morning press conference at the Capitol.
Johnson praised Trump for “showing strong leadership” and added that the president “stepped up to ensure that our troops are going to be paid on Oct. 15 while we wait for Democrats to stop holding the country hostage.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Friday the administration was “violating the law left and right” in how it decides to spend and not spend congressionally allocated funds.
“There’s no inherent power that the president has, and certainly no inherent power that [Office of Management and Budget Director] Russ Vought has to move money around that’s been appropriated by … House, Senate, Democrats and Republicans, that’s the law of the land,” DeLauro said Friday on a call with reporters.
The Department of Defense declined to comment on the legality of the move.
The administration’s move was welcomed by many GOP lawmakers, including Kiggans, a former Navy helicopter pilot, whose bipartisan legislation has tallied 174 co-sponsors, along with 60 Democrats.
“This is exactly what my Pay Our Troops Act was aiming to accomplish! I am grateful for a Commander-in-Chief who cares about our service members and their families,” she wrote Saturday on social platform X. “Now it’s time to get the government open!”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a frequent Trump critic, suggested Democrats had forced the president’s hand.
“Not paying our service-members is never the right choice. Many junior ranking folks live paycheck to paycheck. The President was forced to take this action after Senate Dems voted 8 times to shut government down and not pay the military,” he wrote on X.
The administration also has plans to pay U.S. Coast Guard personnel, a branch housed within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), during the shutdown, using funds from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the president signed into law in early July, an administration official told The Hill on Monday.
“President Trump did not want any of our military to go without pay as a result of Democrats’ political theater, and we at DHS worked out an innovative solution to make sure that didn’t happen,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday on X.
There are about 1.3 million active-duty service members, along with hundreds of thousands of National Guard troops and Defense Department civilian members.
In Congress, the party leaders have dug in as talks among the rank-and-file have yielded little-to-no progress in breaking the stalemate.
Senate Democrats have voted seven times to block the Republican-led “clean” continuing resolution as the lawmakers push for an extension of enhanced health care subsidies.
“Congress must act immediately to keep our shipyards open and ensure our service members can defend America’s maritime security without compromise,” Hooff Cooksey, the executive director of Veterans On Duty, said Monday.
“It’s time to put our military, our national security and our country above politics. End the shutdown. Pay our troops.”