White House OMB confirms US troops will be paid Friday despite shutdown

The White House Office of Management and Budget on Thursday confirmed that it will pay all U.S. service members who are working during the government shutdown, by using a mix of defense and legislative funds.

The Trump administration is expected to use approximately $2.5 billion from the military housing fund portion of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which was enacted earlier this year, a source told NBC News. 

The White House will also use $1.4 billion from the Defense Department's research and development account and $1.4 billion from its procurement account to cover costs, but it is not clear how the final $1.2 billion will be covered. 

The promise comes after Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday that military compensation was important for the administration and that they fully expected to pay service members.

"We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now," Vance told reporters at the Capitol. "We've got food stamp benefits that are set to run out in a week. We're trying to keep as much open as possible. We just need the Democrats to actually help us out."

The Trump administration previously used about $8 billion of unassigned research and development, testing and evaluation funds from last year to cover the Oct. 15 payroll.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.