Speaker Johnson: Democrats Have Voted Eight Times to Block Paychecks to Americans Troops and Federal Workers

WASHINGTON - On Day 10 of the Democrat Government Shutdown, Speaker Johnson held a press conference alongside House GOP Leadership and Chairman Steil of the Committee on House Administration to discuss Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats' repeated votes to keep the government closed and block paychecks for American troops and federal civilian workers.

"Chuck Schumer is hurting real Americans for his own political survival," Speaker Johnson said.

Watch Speaker Johnson's full remarks here.

On Democrats' eighth vote to block paychecks for American troops and federal workers:

Republicans have voted over and over to end this madness and reopen the federal government. We did our job. By way of reminder, the House passed a clean, nonpartisan CR three weeks ago today to keep the government funded and, by extension, to pay our troops and TSA agents and Border Patrol agents and air traffic controllers and the rest of our federal workforce. We had that vote three weeks ago. And since then, Senate Democrats have voted repeatedly to keep the government closed, and the Senate, they have now voted seven times to block paychecks for 2 million federal civilian workers and 1.3 million active-duty military men and women. Now, I want to be very specific, so that everybody in America can clearly cut through the obstruction and understand exactly who is to blame for this chaos.

Let's just make clear: This is the vote to pay troops and federal workers. This is the number of times that the vote has been done. On September 19^th, the GOP in the House voted to pay the troops and pay all these federal workers. The Senate did it on September 19^th, September 30^th, again on October 1^st, 3^rd, 6^th, and the 8^th and the 9^th. Every single time the Republicans voted to pay the troops and federal workers, and every single time the Democrats voted not to. That is the record.

The Senate will continue to put this bill on the floor. It'll be on the floor again next week, and we'll see how many times they want people to go without paychecks. The Republicans are not playing games here.

On the devastating consequences of Democrats' obstruction on American troops and federal civilian workers:

Today, marks the first day federal workers across America will receive a partial paycheck, thanks to Democrats' obstruction to the system here. This is the last paycheck that 700,000 federal workers will see until Washington Democrats decide to do their job and reopen the government.

Starting next week, American servicemembers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, are going to miss a full paycheck. If Democrats don't end this shutdown by Monday, then that October 15^th date will pass us by. You've got millions of American families who will now have to figure out how to make their mortgage, how to cover their rent, pay the car note, and keep food on the table, because Democrats, Chuck Schumer and his colleagues in the Senate, are here playing games.

On Chuck Schumer bragging about keeping the government closed:

What Chuck Schumer's doing right now is sickening. It's sickening to hear him say this shutdown is better for him and his party when it's so terrible for real Americans. Millions of people are experiencing real pain because of these political games, and you'd think after 44 years in Congress, Chuck Schumer would know better. But it seems apparent now that he spent too long in Washington to understand the real pain of real people.