Threat of no military pay divides lawmakers but does little to move needle on shutdown

WASHINGTON — More than 1 million military members may not receive their paychecks next week if the federal shutdown continues to drag on, but lawmakers remain deadlocked on a bill to reopen the government before that happens.

Service members are scheduled to be paid on Oct. 15, which falls on Wednesday of next week. But legislation reopening the government and appropriating federal dollars would need to be passed by Congress before Oct. 13, according to lawmakers — making it likely military families won’t get paid until the end of the month at the earliest.

“The hardworking men and women at Hill Air Force Base and our servicemembers across the country should not have to bear the brunt of the Democrats’ politically motivated shutdown,” Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, told the Deseret News, refe