Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday evening that despite the government shutdown, Coast Guard service members would receive their pay this week.
Noem said the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Coast Guard, found an “innovative” way to provide the money. The announcement comes two days after President Donald Trump said he would order the Defense Department to pay the military on Wednesday, even though the majority of civil servants are not being paid during the federal funding cutoff.
“President Trump did not want any of our service members to go without pay because of Democratic political theater, and we at DHS developed an innovative solution to ensure that didn’t happen,” Noem said on X.
Asked about the “innovative solution” or where the funding was coming from, a DHS spokesperson provided no new information and instead referred NBC News to the text of Noem’s social media post.
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The White House Office of Management and Budget said over the weekend that it plans to use research and development funds to deliver paychecks to service members this week.
The administration last week began laying off more than 4,000 federal employees across seven departments. Of those, 176 were DHS employees, according to a Justice Department court filing Friday. The dismissals are being challenged in court.
The moves to pay some uniformed service members who otherwise would not be paid during the shutdown are the latest efforts by the administration to make up for some of the less popular aspects of the funding gap, which is about to hit the two-week mark.
Congress does not appear to have a plan to reopen the government.
The Senate voted repeatedly and failed to pass the Republican and Democratic versions of a temporary funding bill. The House is back in session Tuesday, but Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he won’t bring the House back until the Senate passes a funding bill.
