Collateral damage: partisan war over government shutdown leaves federal and military workers without pay

The second longest government shutdown in history has turned into trench warfare between the two parties in which citizens and, especially federal employees, serving as collateral damage or hostages. While most Americans now believe Democrats are blocking funding out of political self-interest, Republicans remain equally unwilling to back down.

During Thursday, three bills to be able to pay federal workers and the military ended in nothing as the opposing group shot down the other party's proposal. Thus, Democrats said no by 54-45 to the Shutdown Fairness Act of 2025 by Republican Ron Johnson, which sought to pay service members as well as employees which each agency head determined are "exempt" from the shutdown or "perform emergency work."

A Republican proposal to pay workers who perform their service

As explained by Republican Congressional Majority Leader John Thune, the proposal included "more than 300 congressional staffers, including the Capitol Police, who worked through the night Tuesday into Wednesday morning to keep the Senate floor open while Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley spoke for 22 hours and 37 minutes in protest against President Trump."

Johnson's bill also would have guaranteed pay for federal workers who are performing their duties during the shutdown: "The air traffic controllers, Transportation Security Administration agents, park rangers, federal law enforcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents," according to Thune.

"We will not give Trump a license to play politics with people's livelihoods"

However, the Democratic minority leader in the upper chamber, Chuck Schumer, considered it another "ruse" by conservatives to give Russell Vought, White House budget director, the authority to pick and choose which federal departments and agencies to reopen and which to keep closed.

"It's just another tool for Trump to hurt federal workers and American families and to keep this shutdown going as long as he wants. We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people's livelihoods. That's why we oppose this."

Democratic proposals to pay for and ban Trump's massive layoffs

Johnson himself blocked similar proposals introduced by Democratic senators Chris Van Hollen and Gary Peters. Van Hollen's proposal called for paying all federal workers, military and federal contractors during the 2025 government shutdown, as well as including provisions to prevent the Trump Administration from conducting mass layoffs of federal workers during the shutdown.

For its part, Peters' sought that all members of the military service, federal employees and contractors could receive the payments not collected so far due to the shutdown. The text does not provide for payment to federal workers after the date of the proposal's enactment.

Johnson blocked similar proposals from others by asking to negotiate his own bill

However, Johnson blocked both initiatives saying they were too complex to pass unanimously. In addition, the conservative Wisconsin senator stressed that there were many commonalities between Van Hollen's bill and his own Fairness in Closing Act.

Therefore, he suggested Van Hollen support the procedural motion to allow the Senate to proceed with its own bill, which could then be debated and amended - even passed - on the Senate floor, since neither Democratic measure could be counted on to pass unanimously.