Coast Guard Will Still Be Paid During Shutdown: Noem

Members of the U.S. Coast Guard will still receive paychecks during the government shutdown.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said in an Oct. 14 post on X that members of the Coast Guard “will not miss a paycheck this week as they continue to carry out their critical homeland security and military missions” due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed in July of this year.

“While Democrats have played politics with military pay to fight for illegal aliens, the US Coast Guard has been defending our maritime borders, stopping the flow of deadly narcotics and illegal immigration into our country, and countering America’s adversaries around the world,” Noem said.

This announcement comes after President Donald Trump announced on Oct. 11 that his administration located funds to keep active-duty servicemembers paid during the weeks-long government shutdown.

Trump accused Democrats of holding the military “hostage” as part of the governmental freeze.

“I am using my authority, as Commander in Chief, to direct our Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to use all available funds to get our troops PAID on October 15th,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS.”

The DHS oversees the Coast Guard during times of peace, and the agency said that, along with the rest of the military, members will receive their paychecks on Oct. 15.

While the military won’t have to be concerned about a paycheck, over 250,000 federal employees have already missed at least some pay, and almost 2 million more are expected to go without pay during the upcoming cycle.

The shutdown is stretching into its third week, as Republican congressional leaders and Democratic lawmakers remain deadlocked on health care and other issues.

Under the current laws, unlike civilian governmental employees, U.S. military members are not guaranteed back pay if they missed a payday due to the shutdown, making their situation more tenuous.

Democrats have been unwilling to vote with the majority party to reopen the government unless provisions are added to extend pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year and provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the Working Families Tax Cut Act that were enacted in July are rolled back.

Republicans, on the other hand, have said that the government needs to reopen before negotiations on these provisions can continue.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.