Senate

Democrats block bill to pay military, essential workers during shutdown

by Alexander Bolton – 10/23/25 1:18 PM ET

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Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-sponsored bill Thursday to pay active-duty members of the military and other essential federal employees who have been required to work during the government shutdown.

Democrats blocked the Shutdown Fairness Act of 2025, sponsored by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), in a mostly party-line 54-45 vote. It needed 60 votes to advance.

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Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) crossed party lines to vote in favor of the measure.

Fetterman — along with Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Angus King (I-Maine) — has also been voting with Republicans to reopen the government. The two Georgia Democrats have been voting against that stopgap funding bill.

The legislation would pay service members as well as employees who are determined by agency heads to be “excepted” from the shutdown or who are “performing emergency work.”

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said that would have included more than 300 congressional employees, including U.S. Capitol Police, who worked overnight Tuesday and Wednesday morning to keep the Senate floor open while Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) spoke for 22 hours and 37 minutes in protest of President Trump.

Johnson’s bill would also have guaranteed pay for federal workers who are on duty throughout the shutdown, including air traffic controllers, Transportation Security Administration agents, park rangers, federal law enforcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents, Thune said.

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Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) blasted the Republican bill as a “ruse” that would give White House budget director Russell Vought broad authority to pick and choose which federal departments and agencies to reopen and which to keep closed.

“It’s nothing more than another tool for Trump to hurt federal workers and American families and to keep this shutdown going for as long as he wants,” Schumer said on the floor. “We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people’s livelihoods. That’s why we oppose this.”

Johnson, the bill’s sponsor, accused Democrats of mischaracterizing his bill, asserting that federal law states clearly what federal employees are essential during a shutdown.

The vote was the latest effort by Republicans to force Democrats to take tough votes during the shutdown, which has dragged for 23 days.

Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Gary Peters (Mich.), meanwhile, have introduced an alternative bill to pay all federal employees and contractors during the shutdown.

Van Hollen’s True Shutdown Fairness Act would pay all federal employees during the shutdown, including military service members, and prevent the Trump administration from attempting “reductions in force” or mass layoffs.

Van Hollen asked for unanimous consent to approve his bill on the Senate floor Thursday, but Johnson objected.