Speaker Johnson says Trump administration searching ways to pay Capitol Police during shutdown
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday the Trump administration is seeking ways to pay the U.S. Capitol Police amid the ongoing shutdown.
“We’ve always stood with Capitol Police and law enforcement, and we’ve shown that in word and deed,” Johnson told reporters in the Capitol. “If there is a mechanism to do that, they will find it, and they will fund it.”
Johnson said that while the administration is forced to make “unfortunate” decisions given the limited resources available during the shutdown, Republicans would put military personnel and law enforcement at the top of the list.
“We’re looking at it right now as conservative Republicans … that’s who serves in the White House right now,” Johnson said. “But I can tell you that when we look at that, we prioritize troops and law enforcement.”
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a statement Tuesday indicating that the administration is readying for a lengthy shutdown, while vowing to ensure that the military and law enforcement officers don’t miss a paycheck.
“OMB is making every preparation to batten down the hatches and ride out the Democrats’ intransigence,” the office posted on social platform X. “Pay the troops, pay law enforcement, continue the RIFs [reductions in force], and wait.”
The OMB did not specify which law enforcement offices it was referring to.
The Trump administration recently shifted unspent funds earmarked for Pentagon research and development to pay the troops on Oct. 15. Johnson suggested there might be a similar way to find funding for the Capitol Police. Those officers are considered essential, meaning they have to keep working through the shutdown, but they missed their first full paycheck last Friday.
“If we can find a similar mechanism to take care of Capitol Police, of course they’ll do that. But that’s in a separate branch. So [it’s] a different determination,” Johnson said.
Once a bipartisan issue, support for the Capitol Police has taken on a more partisan bent since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of President Trump supporters seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat. More than 140 officers were injured in the rampage, and several more died by suicide in the weeks afterward.
Trump has denied the severity of that attack. And on his first day in office in January he pardoned roughly 1,500 people who were convicted of crimes related to the riot, including those who maimed police officers.
GOP leaders in the Capitol have also refused to dedicate a plaque commemorating those officers, which remains in the Capitol basement more than two years after it was required by law to be installed.