Government Shutdown Threatens Paychecks for Workers This Friday

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(NEXSTAR) While biweekly employees are gearing up for the second of three paychecks this month on Friday, countless federal workers face an entirely different reality, with no paycheck in sight due to the ongoing government shutdown.

The shutdown entered its 21st day on Tuesday, marking the second instance of such a prolonged closure. If this impasse extends into November, it could challenge and possibly exceed the longest government shutdown ever recorded.

A resolution remains elusive, leaving a significant portion of the 2.4 million federal employees without compensation. Their last paycheck, issued on October 10, only accounted for work completed up until September 30, effectively omitting pay for the following four days.

As highlighted by our partner, The Hill, earlier this month, even those receiving partial paychecks include essential personnel such as air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration staff, critical to the operation of the nation’s airports.

In some cases, specific federal employees, who would typically face unpaid days during a shutdown, have experienced some relief.

That includes U.S. Coast Guard service members, who are being paid with funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, The Hill previously reported. These service members, along with the rest of the military, were paid last Wednesday. For the latter group of service members, paychecks were disbursed using “approximately $8 billion of unobligated research testing and evaluation funds (RDTE) from the prior fiscal year,” a Defense Department official told The Hill.

A second payment to servicemembers, should the shutdown continue, seems unlikely, the Associated Press reported last week.

Funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill will also be used to pay “more than 70,000 sworn law enforcement officers” under the Department of Homeland Security, a spokesperson confirmed to Nexstar. That includes officers with Customs and Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Secret Service Special Agents, and air marshals with the TSA.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said these “super checks” covering “the 4 days lost, their overtime, and their next pay period” would be dispersed by Wednesday.

FBI Director Kash Patel said last week that FBI special agents would also still be paid, though he did not say where funds would be coming from.

Other workers like those air traffic controllers and TSA agents who received partial paychecks continue to work without pay. Some of those employees have instead opted not to work, prompting staffing shortages at U.S. airports, including in some of the nation’s biggest cities.

Thousands more federal employees have been laid off or furloughed since the shutdown began, the latter including more than three-quarters of the staff at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the U.S.’s nuclear stockpile.

The government tab for paying furloughed workers while they are at home comes to roughly $400 million a day, according to a CBO estimate provided at the request of Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

Traditionally, those who go unpaid during shutdowns receive back pay once the stalemate ends. President Trump has, however, threatened to do away with that guaranteed back pay, despite a law passed during his first term stipulating that federal workers must be paid after a shutdown.

The administration is also trying to fire thousands of federal workers in agencies that don’t align with its priorities. Republican leaders in Congress have said that’s part of the fallout from a shutdown. Past presidents, however, did not use shutdowns to engage in mass firings.

The Senate, which was unable to pass the House-passed continuing resolution on Monday, is scheduled to vote on the stopgap funding bill Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.