Vice President JD Vance said that service members will receive their paychecks on Friday, though he warned the White House has a “limited pot of money” as a government shutdown stretches into its fifth week.
“We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now. We’ve got food stamp benefits that are set to run out in a week. We’re trying to keep as much open as possible,” Vance told reporters as he left a lunch with Senate Republicans on Tuesday.
Vance did not specify where the money would come from and was less clear about other funding cliffs, including the expiration of benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but the White House has previously diverted unspent funds or said it would tap into tariff revenue to make narrow shutdown exceptions.
In the case of troop pay, the Pentagon said last week that it had accepted a $130 million donation from Timothy Mellon, a major backer of President Donald Trump, to make a dent in the shortfall.
Vance’s comments mark the second time the administration has said it would find money for troop pay.
“Look, we’re trying to keep as much open as possible, and we’re exploring all options. There are limitations on all these funds. There are limitations on how you can use them,” Vance said, alluding to his administration’s assessment that it could not tap a contingency fund to keep SNAP afloat.
“Even if you use them for one thing, that means you can’t use them for another. We are trying as much as possible to ensure that critical food benefits get paid, that our military gets paid,” Vance added.
His announcement comes as Senate Republicans struggle to find new points of leverage in a fight over government funding, with Democrats demanding healthcare concessions in exchange for their votes.
The military pay will make digging in easier for Democrats, though pay for air traffic controllers and other essential workers is still affected by the impasse, and on Monday, the largest union for federal workers urged the party to back away from its demands.
“You know what makes this really easy? If the Democrats just opened up the government, then we wouldn’t have to play this game where we’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole with the budget, because we have such limited numbers to spread around very widely,” Vance said.
THUNE SOURS ON ‘RIFLE SHOT’ BILLS AS REPUBLICANS EYE SHUTDOWN ENDGAME
Earlier on Tuesday, Senate Democrats rejected a “clean” GOP funding bill for the 13th time, with crossover support from just three of the eight senators needed to overcome a Senate filibuster.
“The Democrats could just open up the government. We need five reasonable Democrats to do exactly that. We hope that they will,” Vance added.
