Military spouse Heather Campbell and Raleigh Smith Duttweiler, chief impact officer for the National Military Family Association, join CBS News to discuss the effects of the government shutdown on the families of service members.

Washington

Military families are experiencing financial strain due to the ongoing government shutdown, with uncertainty surrounding the timely payment of service members. While some families received their pay, inconsistencies and delays have been reported, leaving many concerned about their ability to cover essential expenses. 

Advocates and affected families are urging lawmakers to pass legislation, such as the Pay Our Troops Act, to ensure military personnel are paid during government funding gaps. The situation highlights the broader impact of political deadlock on those serving in the armed forces and their families, who often live paycheck to paycheck.

Military spouse on impact of government shutdown

A lot of failed votes there in the halls of Congress trying to get the U.S. government up and running in the midst of a shutdown. Another vote coming in hours. Well, today, lawmakers are deadlocked after the Senate for an eighth time failed to advance a bill to reopen the government. Democrats digging in their heels over health care subsidies. Meanwhile, Republicans resolute on blaming Democrats. Meanwhile, one group concerned about not getting their paycheck are military families. In fact, payday for our troops is scheduled for today. Now, President Trump says his administration identified funds to pay service members today, but payments passed today? There's a big question mark over that. Here's House Speaker Mike Johnson talking on that point. The problem we have right now is that in spite of President Trump's heroic efforts to make sure they get paid, that is a temporary fix because the executive branch's help is not permanent. It can't be. And if the Democrats continue to vote to keep the government closed, as they have done now so many times, then we know that U.S. troops are going to risk missing a full paycheck at the end of this month. You know what I was taught? When there are problems, you bring moms in the room. Let's talk to people living with this reality. Raleigh Smith-Dutweiler with the National Military Family Association joins military spouse Heather Campbell. Heather, you're a mother to three school age kids. Welcome to both of you. We want to start with you, Heather. We just heard Speaker Johnson say that there's really no guarantee that military families will get paid at the end of the month if the government shuts down. How would that impact your family if this continues? You know, for my family specifically, being a one-income military family, we live oftentimes paycheck to paycheck, just like many of the families in my community. So while we might have enough to get by a little bit or we might have an emergency fund, there's not a lot of us, myself included, that have an emergency fund big enough to cover multiple lost paychecks or even, you know, one lost paycheck. We have a house at a previous duty station with renters in it that are military. So if they don't get paid, they can't pay us. And so now we have to pay our house bill and that house bill without our own paycheck. So there's a lot of different examples like that throughout our community that we're hearing from families saying, hey, we're doing a great job. We can make the budget work, but the budget only works if we're actually getting our paychecks on time. Yeah. And so what's the impact in your home? Because we've been seeing pictures of your beautiful family there on the screen. What's the impact where you're living right now around the dinner table? I think one of the things to remember is that as military kids move around, my kids have been in 10 schools in the last eight years, they just want to plug into whatever the local thing is. They don't want to be military kids who are off on their own. They want to do the chess club and band and sports and all of those regular things that help kids feel plugged in and like they belong in their local community. Those are going to be really hard to justify if we don't have the funds to cover it. A lot of those organizations aren't going to take an IOU. Some might, and that's wonderful, but that's going to be really hard to explain to my kids that we can't do the things that make them feel like they belong because we didn't get paid. So Raleigh, I've got to ask you, President Trump says his administration identified funds so that troops could get paid today. What are you hearing from military families? We know you're very plugged into that community. Did they get their paychecks? Sure. We are hearing from a lot of military families and most of them did get paid and we are so grateful for that. Like Heather's explained, we are working families, we live paycheck to paycheck, just like most Americans do, but we are also hearing inconsistencies. Granted, the families likely to reach out to us are the ones having problems, but we have heard from families who have gotten paid too much, who've gotten paid too little, whose pay stub doesn't match the number actually showing up in their bank account. And still we've heard from families who are counting on that 15th payday, counting on getting something in their bank account, who have pay stubs instead that indicate that they won't be paid until the 23rd or even the 25th. And those 10 extra days can be far too much for families living close to the line to be able to make ends meet. Almost a quarter of military families don't even have $500 in their checking account sitting there for an emergency. And it really is because we live paycheck to paycheck to paycheck to paycheck. We're not able to save up. And that means in a moment like this, when the government isn't paying us on time and we're not able to say in two weeks, we'll be able to make rent so that we can live on base and keep your family safe. We don't know where that money's going to come from. We don't know how to get by and we have nothing else to turn to. We're left paying the bill for our national security. Well, and what I was going to ask you is, we know that Representative Jen Kiggins has introduced the Pay Our Troops Act. It essentially gets families paid until the government is up and running, or at least kicks the can down the road until January 1 of 2027. Your take on that legislation? We are so grateful for their support. There are so many representatives on the Hill, on both sides of the aisle, who recognize that military families like ours cannot be left holding the bill. We are grateful for Kiggins' leadership there. And we are so grateful to have had opportunities today. We're actually talking to you from Capitol Hill, where we're smushed into an old fashioned telephone booth as we beg our leaders on the Hill to make sure that that legislation is passed. Government needs to reopen. That's the absolute truth that we all rely on as Americans. We all count on our government showing up and going to work, just like we do every day. But what military families count on, too, is while you know that we're going to keep you safe, we need to know that we're going to be able to pay our bills and put food on the table. So getting that Pay Our Troops Act and the Pay Our Military Act passed, that's the kind of legislative protection that we are looking for and that we ask every American to look for with us. Call your congressman, write them, tell them that the military should get paid on time, every time. Because your mother said. Heather, I just want to finish with this, you know, something I say to my kids all the time is stop fighting, stop arguing, find consensus, get along. When your kids watch this, how are they taking all of this in? You know, my kids are school age, so we like superheroes. And so I kind of liken it to that Spider-Man meme, where everybody's in a triangle, right? And they're all just pointing at each other. And what it really comes down to is we as military families, we don't care who's fighting about it. We don't care who is blaming whom. What we care about is that paying our military and paying them on time should not be right or left. It's really a matter of right and wrong. And not paying our military families on time is wrong. I love that you put the emphasis on heroes with your kiddos, and they have object lessons not only in the military members that you're connected to, but also you military moms connected to my own family's legacy of military pride. I am thankful for an opportunity to talk to you both. It's one thing to talk to lawmakers and correspondents. Another thing to talk about the people who are knocking doors in the halls of Congress. Thank you so much. Raleigh Smith, Duttweiler, and Heather Campbell.

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