Name: Military and veteran families face massive impact from shutdown
Uploaded: 2025-11-11T15:55:50.583Z
Duration: 3 min 14 s
Description: The government shutdown continues to impact military families as Veterans Day falls on Day 42 of the funding lapse. Kathy Roth-Douquet, the founder and CEO of Blue Star Families, joins CBS News with more.

The government shutdown continues to impact military families as Veterans Day falls on Day 42 of the funding lapse. Kathy Roth-Douquet, the founder and CEO of Blue Star Families, joins CBS News with more.

Washington

The government shutdown, now in its 42nd day, has had a substantial impact on active duty service members, veterans, and their families. Many are facing missed paychecks, disrupted healthcare services, and increased reliance on food banks, with some National Guard and Reserve members not receiving pay due to technicalities.

Organizations such as Blue Star Families have observed a surge in demand for food support and report that training, education, and career advancement opportunities for military personnel are on hold. The shutdown's effects extend to family stability, with moves and school changes delayed, prompting calls for lawmakers and communities to provide urgent support.

Military and veteran families face massive impact from shutdown

As we commemorate Veterans Day, it's also day 42 of the government shutdown. While hope is on the horizon, as we've been reporting, the shutdown has directly impacted active duty service members, their families, and veterans. If the government is still not open, military personnel could miss their first paycheck on November 15th, and the funds used to cover their pay, they're also running out. Cathy Roth Duque joins me now. She is the co-founder and CEO of Blue Star Families, which helps veterans across the country. Cathy, thank you so much for being with us. Thanks for having me, Errol. I hope you're enjoying somewhat this Veterans Day. But the government shutdown has been especially tough for military families. Just fact check this for us, and help people understand what that means for veterans. Yeah, Errol, it's been brutal, and it's hard to explain how much the federal government shapes every aspect of a military family's life. A service member might be getting his pay, but if you're National Guard or Reserve, you may not be. There are 23,000 National Guards members wearing uniforms every day who are not getting paid because of the technical category that their pay comes on. But it's more than pay, too. Healthcare, a lot of prescription medicine is not making it to military health clinics right now. And that means some people are having to go without, or they're having to go on the economy and pay hundreds of dollars for the medicine they need. That's incredible. It's not just about pay, but the kind of prescriptions and things that veterans need to kind of be able to survive. How then is Blue Star Families trying to help people in need right now? Well, we're asking people how it's affecting them so we can understand it. We're seeing that 20% of our service members have a spouse who's working on base or in a federal job, so they're down one paycheck. Food support's really important. We asked all of our food banks around the country what the effect is. 100% have increased usage, half of them more than 50%. Food line's around the block sometimes. These are currently serving military, and that's not okay. And it's also, when it comes to deployments and career growth, that's all on hold as well. It's really important that you say that, and you're a Blue Star Family yourself. You had a stepfather who served, which is great. The whole family serves. So we have training and education that's been stopped. That means in some cases, people won't be able to take their next duty station, won't be able to get a promotion. That means the family's plans to change schools or move, or sometimes they're mid-move, and that stops. So it's reverberating. Look, we need a military, but if it's too hard on them and their families, they won't stick around and serve. So we can't make it so hard for them. The government has to do their job, but the American people, too. We have to provide the support, and that's where Veterans Day really helps. So if there's one thing for viewers to remember on this Veterans Day about how veterans are treated during a shutdown, what would it be? We have to tell our lawmakers to do their job and have a budget, because that's what the military needs to survive, and in your community, you can do your part. That's our campaign. Support the military and veterans. We're in every zip code. We can all do our part. Yeah, great message. Kathy Roth, UK. Thank you so much for being here today.

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