Senate Democrats voted on Thursday to block a bill proposed by Republicans in the Senate to pay active-duty military members and other essential federal employees who have continued to work amid the ongoing shutdown, which has already lasted 23 days.
According to Fox News, the Republican-led bill proposed by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), titled the Shutdown Fairness Act of 2025, failed to pass the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the legislation with a 54-45 vote on Thursday. The outlet noted that Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) joined Republican senators in supporting the legislation.
A summary of the Shutdown Fairness Act of 2025 states, “The bill provides appropriations for federal agencies to provide standard rates of pay, allowances, pay differentials, benefits, and other payments to excepted employees for work performed during any period in which interim continuing appropriations or full-year appropriations are not in effect for a fiscal year (i.e., a government shutdown). An excepted employee is an employee who is required to work during a government shutdown.”
According to The Hill, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) explained that the Shutdown Fairness Act of 2025 would have guaranteed that federal workers, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, Border Patrol Agents, air traffic controllers, Transportation Security Administration agents, federal law enforcement officials, and park rangers, would continue to be paid during the shutdown of the federal government.
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In a statement obtained by Fox News, Johnson addressed the legislation prior to Thursday’s vote, saying, “I just hope, on a nonpartisan basis, we do something that makes sense around here for once.”
“With Democrats continuing the Schumer Shutdown, they should at least agree to pay all the federal employees that are forced to continue working,” Johnson added. “The 2025 Shutdown Fairness Act is a permanent fix that will ensure excepted workers and our troops are paid during a shutdown.”
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) claimed that the legislation was a “ruse” that would allow White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to choose which federal agencies would be reopened and which agencies would remain closed during the shutdown.
“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 stated. “We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people’s livelihoods. That’s why we oppose this.”
