Hakeem Jeffries calls bill to pay troops during shutdown ‘political ploy’

Congressional Democrats are coming out hard against Republican-led efforts to alleviate the worst impacts of the government shutdown.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Monday that he opposed standalone legislation to pay troops and federal employees reporting to work during the funding lapse. Democratic lawmakers are showing few signs of ending the 20-day-long shutdown despite millions of federal employees facing mounting financial stress due to the prospect of missing their next paycheck.

“It appears to be more like a political ploy giving Donald Trump discretion over which employees should be compensated and which employees should not be compensated,” Jeffries said during a press conference in the U.S. Capitol. “All employees should be compensated, and that will happen when we reopen the government.”

Though President Donald Trump tapped unused Pentagon funds to avert a pay lapse for U.S. service members, they are still at risk of missing their salaries during the next pay period. Federal employees are slated to miss their first full paycheck on Friday due to the funding lapse.

The Senate bill would pay the cohort of federal employees who are reporting to work during the shutdown.

Jeffries invoked healthcare when arguing why he could not support the legislation to pay military personnel and some federal workers. Democrats have consistently demanded that Republicans attach unrelated healthcare provisions amounting to more than $1 trillion to a government funding measure in exchange for their support.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has declared Democrats’ demands to be a nonstarter, but has offered them a vote on extending COVID-era Obamacare subsidies after they reopen the government.

Jeffries and Schumer, however, have balked at that overture to end the shutdown.

Jeffries notably led nearly all House Democrats in voting against a clean funding measure to avert a shutdown in September. The minority leader has since encouraged his Senate Democratic counterparts to keep the government shuttered until their demands are met as the shutdown drags on to its fourth week.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that he would call his chamber back into session to consider the funding measure in the event it passes the Senate. Republicans will need seven Democrats to cross party lines in order to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster.

The speaker also slammed Democrats for digging in against efforts to fund the government despite the current funding lapse holding the title as the longest full shutdown in U.S. history. A 35-day shutdown during President Donald Trump’s first term did not impact every government agency because Congress had passed five out of the 12 appropriations bills.

“It is the most costly, most selfish, most dangerous political stunt in the history of the United States Congress,” Johnson said Monday.

Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.

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