As the government shutdown set the record for the longest funding lapse in our nation’s history, MOAA and fellow veterans service organizations rallied with one clear message:

End it now.

“The impacts of a prolonged shutdown extend far beyond a single paycheck across our military services,” said Maj. Gen. April Vogel, USAF (Ret), MOAA’s vice president of Government Relations, at a Nov. 4 press conference on Capitol Hill. “Families are caught between mission and, at least for a time, uncertainty.”

[MORE: Watch the Press Conference | Latest Shutdown Updates]

Though Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force members received paychecks Oct. 31, the ability for the government to cover their mid-November paychecks appears less certain. Coast Guard information concerning pay status for servicemembers has not been updated.

MOAA and other organizations support the Pay Our Troops Act, bipartisan legislation that would ensure payment for those in the armed forces during the current funding lapse. This temporary fix is an imperfect one, as the legislation as written would not cover members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Officer Corps or the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps.

These officers, Vogel said, “continue to serve without pay while the government remains shut down.”

“Their duties – flying Hurricane Hunter aircraft into major storms, monitoring public health threats, and protecting the homeland in uniform – have not paused. But the promise of compensation has.”

The government shutdown brings lasting and widespread negative effects across the entire uniformed services community. There are about 200,000 veterans who have been furloughed from their federal jobs, said Jess Finucan, director of policy and advocacy for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). And nearly 1.2 million veterans rely on government support to put food on the table, Finucan added.

Representatives from several major military and veterans organizations gathered Nov. 4 on Capitol Hill to send a joint message to lawmakers. 

Military families are not receiving aid for education and moving expenses, but the bills are due. Reservists are missing out on critical training. Follow-on effects will likely extend to 2026, even if funding is secured tomorrow.

Finucan implored Congress to “pass full-year funding, pay our troops, and protect our veterans.”

“Every day this drives on is another day you fail the very people who’ve defended this nation,” she said. 

MOAA and IAVA joined with representatives from Blue Star Families, the Reserve Organization of America, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, Disabled American Veterans, the National Military Family Association, and the Air Force Sergeants Association for the Nov. 4 press event. The groups joined to call for “immediate, bipartisan, and bicameral action to ensure servicemembers and their families receive the pay and stability they have earned, and that the government fulfills its duty to those who have served.”