Grassroots campaign puts pressure on Congress to pass ‘Pay Our Troops Act’
An advocacy group representing service members and their families nationwide has launched a campaign encouraging the public to contact their members of Congress in support of the Pay Our Troops Act of 2026.
The National Military Family Association says more than 10,000 letters have already been sent to Congress through its Military Family Action Center, urging lawmakers to pass the bill that would ensure that troops, Defense Department civilians and Coast Guard members continue to receive pay and benefits during this shutdown.
The advocacy group made it easy for the public to join the campaign — supporters simply enter their name and address into a short form, and the organization sends a pre-drafted letter to their elected officials within minutes.
“What prompted us to start doing this is the realization that if Congress does not come to a spending agreement within the next less than two weeks, members of the military risk losing a paycheck,” Eileen Huck, the deputy director of government relations at the nonprofit National Military Family Association, told Federal News Network.
“I am disappointed that I haven’t seen more forward progress on this legislation, despite the bipartisan support. I hope when Congress is back next week that this is something that they take up,” she added.
Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) reintroduced the bill in September, a little over two weeks before the government shut down. Kiggans said the legislation “ensures that we honor the commitment of our troops by guaranteeing their pay, no matter what happens in Washington.” The bill has been backed by dozens of co-sponsors.
But the bill has yet to advance out of committee.
During the 2013 government shutdown, a similar piece of legislation passed within two days – just hours before government funding lapsed.
“If Congress had wanted to prioritize this, there was definitely time for them to do so. And I don’t know why that didn’t happen. Ultimately our hope would be that Congress is able to overcome its differences and come to an agreement to fund the entire government. But until that happens, we would like to see Congress move on this very common sense piece of legislation that would ensure our service members are paid,” Huck said.
When asked about the bill’s prospects, Kiggans’ office did not address its path forward but told Federal News Network in a statement, “House Republicans kept our word — we voted to keep the government open and to ensure paychecks go out to our troops and government services remain uninterrupted. Democrats’ insistence on shutting down the government jeopardizes both our national security and the financial security of millions of working families. That’s not leadership — that’s recklessness.”
The 2025 government shutdown dragged into its third day on Friday, with the Senate again failing to pass competing bills to fund the government as Democrats and Republicans continue to clash over healthcare provisions. At the center of the shutdown fight are Democrats’ demands to extend pandemic-era subsidies that cut premiums for low- and middle-income Americans buying health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Democrats also demand a reversal of Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s reconciliation bill.
During the most recent government shutdown that began in December 2018 and lasted 34 days, the Defense Department had already been funded through supplemental appropriations, so military personnel continued to be paid. The Department of Homeland Security, however, had not been funded, which left Coast Guard members working without pay. The impacts were widespread – Coast Guard Mutual Assistance, for example, delivered $ 8.4 million in relief to more than 6,200 Coast Guard members and families during that shutdown.
“Service members were paid during that shutdown, but the Coast Guard was not, and they went for 35 days without receiving pay. And it was extremely challenging. That is a very long time to go without a paycheck. And we heard stories about families visiting food banks. We heard stories about families having trouble paying their bills. That’s part of the reason why we are so anxious for this [the Pay Our Troops] bill to pass because we saw what happened last time to service members in the Coast Guard, and the last thing we would want to see is that repeated on an even bigger scale across the entire Department of Defense,” Huck said.
While the Pay Our Troops Act of 2026 remains stalled in Congress, the Trump administration is warning of government worker layoffs during the lapse in appropriations. Trump told reporters Tuesday that the administration can make “irreversible” cuts if Democrats do not vote for the GOP continuing resolution to fund the federal government through November.
“The last person that wants to shut down is us,” Trump said. “With that being said, we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them. Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”
Meanwhile, the Defense Department’s shutdown guidance does not call for cuts to its civilian workforce.
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email anastasia.obis@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at (301) 830-2747.
The post Grassroots campaign puts pressure on Congress to pass ‘Pay Our Troops Act’ first appeared on Federal News Network.