As Government Shutdown Looms, Military Families Worry About Next Paycheck

If the government shuts down on Friday because Congress can’t reach a budget deal, plenty of Americans will feel the pinch, including the families of active duty servicemen and women. 

While on a visit to Baghdad, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told troops Thursday that in the event of a government shutdown, active duty troops could expect delayed paychecks. Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III underscored that in statements Thursday: "The DoD will have no funds to pay military members or civilian employees for the days during which the government is shut down."

That is a prospect Lani Ridenhour, whose husband is a lieutenant colonel in the Marines stationed at the base in Quantico, Va., finds “unbelievable.”

“Most military families live paycheck to paycheck,” said Ridenhour, who is from Hartsdale.

Troops receive paychecks twice a month. If the government shut down through next week, uniformed troops would receive half of their pay on April 15. If the shutdown extended through the end of the month, troops would not get paid on April 30, Gates said. They would be paid retroactively once government operations reopened, he said.

Ridenhour said even a short-term delay getting a paycheck could leave some families unable to pay for day-to-day necessities.

“For people serving in Afghanistan or Iraq, they’re already stressed,” she said. “That’s an awful thing to put more stress on them.”

The House approved a Republican resolution on Wednesday that would fund the Department of Defense through the end of the fiscal year, but it comes with strings attached—an additional $12 billion in spending cuts and ban on publicly funded abortions in the District of Columbia—keeping it from passage in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

New York State Sen. Greg Ball (R-C, Patterson), chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security, and Military Affairs, said he was concerned about the possibility of  support services for military families being halted or delayed.

“I would ask that constituents in the Hudson Valley put in a call to [Republican] Congresswoman Nan Hayworth to see if she can help bridge the divide with more extreme elements of the Republican party,” Ball said.

Ridenhour said that military families aren’t concerned about political wrangling in the budget debate; they just want to know their next paycheck will arrive.

“Everybody’s worried,” she said. “You can see the stress in everyone’s face.”