From her vantage point working at a U.S. base near Kaiserslautern, Germany, Melanie Pena-Delgado is seeing the range of repercussions that the United States’ government shutdown is having on American military families stationed overseas.
At the Army Community Center, where she provides financial counseling, Ms. Pena-Delgado says there’s been “a flood of soldiers” coming in for emergency pay loans. “The traffic is very heavy,” she adds. “Unfortunately, these young soldiers – especially if they’ve got a young family – are living paycheck to paycheck.”
At a nearby middle school, when extracurriculars for military schoolchildren, from sports to science clubs to the homecoming dance, were canceled due to the shutdown, there was an “outcry from families,” says Ms. Pena-Delgado, who also substitute teaches there. The same sorts of standoffs have been happening at other military base schools as well, she says.
Why We Wrote This
Active-duty members of the armed forces are supposed to be paid on Oct. 15. Unlike in other recent shutdowns, Congress hasn’t safeguarded their pay – prompting outcries from families that sacrifice to serve the country.
In her case, after military parents convinced Department of Defense school administrators to reconsider, the after-school activities resumed.
But payday is approaching on Oct. 15. And while two-thirds of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, for American soldiers and their families, who already sacrifice to serve, their sense of having a safety net is fraying. A quarter of service members have less than $500 in savings, according to advocacy organizations. Uncertain pay becomes one more burden to bear.
Now, American troops are looking to U.S. lawmakers for help. Congress is considering separate legislation, including a bipartisan “Pay Our Troops Act,” to get service members their salaries despite the shutdown. And while President Donald Trump has publicly stated that they will be paid regardless, House Speaker Mike Johnson has told lawmakers that the bill won’t come up for a vote, Politico reported Thursday. Mr. Johnson and other Republicans say it would take pressure off Democrats to end the stoppage. Democrats, meanwhile, say it’s up to Republicans to negotiate a deal.
Courtesy of Melanie Pena-Delgado
Not the first shutdown rodeo for troops
The last time service members were affected by a government shutdown was in 2018. Then, the Department of Defense had already been funded for the year, so most troops still got paid. Those who weren’t went without salaries for weeks, including, as part of the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Coast Guard.
This time around, there have been no preemptive moves to make sure troops get their paychecks, says Raleigh Duttweiler, chief impact officer at the National Military Family Association. “The tenor in our homes went from normal political concern about what’s going to happen to, ‘Oh my goodness, how are we going to put food on the tables?’”
One military spouse in Texas, who requested anonymity to speak frankly, recalls that during the last government shutdown, she didn’t have a job. She and her husband had a brand-new baby and had just bought a house.
“You think of the stress on you emotionally as a military spouse when your husband is deployed and may not get a paycheck,” she says. Far from home, she recalls thinking, “I’m isolated, I have no family that lives here.”
U.S. troops often find themselves in financially precarious positions. Nearly three-quarters of service members and their spouses are worried about delayed paychecks, according to an online “pulse poll” of 168 service members and spouses by Blue Star Families conducted earlier this month.
Some 60% say their biggest concern is that their spouses will feel more worry or stress, and more than half say they may need to use their personal savings to cover costs while they’re not receiving a paycheck. One in three service members says they may need to take out a loan.
Now, the military spouse in Texas is working. But even with two incomes, “this is still very hard – and this is not unique,” she says. “This is what many of our military families are facing right now in my community.”
According to the Blue Star Families poll, some military families are quietly seeking assistance. One quarter of the poll’s respondents said they may need to rely on a food bank to put supper on the table.
Others are postponing trips, the Texas spouse says. “We’re on fall vacation and had plans to take the kids to a pumpkin patch, to take them on a little mini overnight camping trip, and we canceled all of that,” she says. “So instead of them getting this experience during their fall break, we’re going to sit at home and do what we can with what we have, knowing that we have to dip into savings to make it through.”
With incomes already strained by inflation, many Americans are struggling to make ends meet. But within military communities, that pressure is compounded by the fact that families these days generally “need two incomes to get by, and we can only count on one,” Ms. Duttweiler says.
In part due to frequent relocations that disrupt careers and the challenge of solo parenting during deployments, more than 1 in 5 military spouses stay home with children or otherwise don’t draw a paycheck. Notable, then, is that 63% of military respondents said in a 2019 poll that having two incomes was vital to their financial well-being. Last year, the percentage of those saying they needed two incomes jumped to 77%.
Recruiting and the costs of military moves
For now, the timing of this government shutdown is particularly difficult for military families, about a third of whom relocated over the summer and spent some $5,000 out of pocket to do it. Most military families take a full year to recover financially from a move, according to military advocacy groups.
Back-to-school season also means families need to cover the costs of new clothes and school supplies and extracurricular fees, Ms. Duttweiler says. “And now we’re looking at a missed paycheck.”
This all has implications for recruiting, says Lindsay Knight, Chief Impact Officer at Blue Star Families.
“The lack of financial stability is not a great place for any family to be in, but specifically a military family that has dedicated their life to the service of this country,” she says. “The less good that quality of life is, the bigger the problem that we are going to have with retention and sustainability of the all-volunteer force.”
Back in Texas, the military spouse says that she and her husband will continue to serve. However, 38% of those surveyed in the Blue Star poll said the government shutdown decreases their families’ likelihood of continuing in the military. “In the back of your mind, there’s that nagging feeling that I am something that can be put on pause,” the spouse says. “And that doesn’t go away.”
Some members of Ms. Pena-Delgado’s book club are talking about building food boxes and putting them in the front yards of their homes on base. They plan to stock the boxes with items like bread and laundry detergent and leave them for anyone who needs them. That way, families can pick the boxes up anonymously.
“You know, whatever people need,” she says. “We’re all just leaning on each other.”
