Treasury Secretary Warns US Won’t Be Able to Pay Military by Nov. 15

The warning comes in the fourth week of the ongoing government shutdown.

U.S. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent (C) reacts during a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Oct. 26, 2025. Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that active military service members will miss their paychecks by Nov. 15 if the government shutdown persists.

“I think we'll be able to pay them beginning in November, but by Nov. 15 our troops and service members who are willing to risk their lives aren’t going to be able to get paid,” Bessent said during CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Oct. 26.

The shutdown, which began on Oct. 1, has resulted in the furloughing of about 750,000 federal employees and left others working without pay. Troops, however, have been paid by the Trump administration during the funding lapse after money was shifted.

A private donor also sent the government a $130 million check to help cover the paychecks of about 1.3 million active service members, President Donald Trump said last week. The individual who made the donation doesn’t want to be named, he said.

“He called us the other day and he said: ‘I’d like to contribute any shortfall you have because of the Democrat shutdown. I’d like to contribute, personally contribute, any shortfall you have with the military, because I love the military and I love the country,’” Trump said in a Cabinet meeting.

The funding lapse that sparked the shutdown came about after members of Congress could not agree on funding the government.

Democrats insist that a measure to reopen the government include a permanent extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. They also demand the reversal of provisions from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law in July, that exclude asylum seekers, refugees, and those on certain visas from qualifying for Affordable Care Act coverage starting in 2027. Republicans have said that these issues should be debated separately, rather than as a condition for reopening the government.

On Oct. 26, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told CBS that there is an urgent need to reopen the government.

“Which is why we continue to demand that Republicans sit at the negotiating table so we can enact a spending agreement that’s bipartisan in nature,” Jeffries stated. “That’s what we’ve called for from the very beginning.”

He added that voting for a GOP-backed plan to reopen the government would amount to supporting a “spending bill that continues to gut the health care of the American people, in an environment where Republicans have already enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history.”

When Bessent was asked about the possibility that congressional Democrats could meet with Trump, the Treasury secretary said, “I don’t know what good it does.”

“This is a Democratic-led boycott, and I’m just not sure what they’re doing,” Bessent also said, urging moderate Democrats to “be heroes” and join Republicans in voting to reopen the government without conditions.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and states have warned that the shutdown could imperil the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program starting on Nov. 1.

“Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the USDA recently said in a post on its website while chastising Democrats for refusing to vote to reopen the government. “They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”