How a Government Shutdown will Impact Military Families: If Congress does not pass a spending package for the 2024 fiscal year by November 17th, the government will “shut down”. A shutdown means that all “nonessential” federal agencies must stop functioning until money is appropriated for the next fiscal year. Government functions deemed essential, like the military, will continue.

During a government shutdown, even though missions deemed essential to national security keep running, the troops working on them will not get paid unless Congress passes emergency legislation to allow paychecks to continue. In 2013, lawmakers passed a bill guaranteeing military pay during a 16-day shutdown. In 2019, the military, except the Coast Guard, were paid because Congress passed a Pentagon spending bill. Coast Guard funding falls under the Department of Homeland Security so service-members were not paid until the 34 day shutdown ended. This year, lawmakers passed a 45-day continuing resolution that will keep our government open until November 17th. For more information on how a government shutdown could impact our families, click here.

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