(WASHINGTON) — In a rare appearance on C-SPAN on Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson heard from one military mom who begged him to bring the House back to session to pass a standalone bill to provide military troops pay during the government shutdown.
The person was identified on the call as “Samantha” — a Republican from Fort Belvoir, Virginia, who said she’s “very disappointed” with the Republican Party over the shutdown.
She said her “kids could die” if her family experiences a lapse in pay on Oct. 15.
If a government shutdown continues into next week and Congress does not pass a measure to pay the troops or reopen the government, that date will mark the first time in recent history when service members missed a paycheck amid a shutdown.
“I think that it is awful, and the audacity of someone who makes six figures a year to do this to military families is insane,” Samantha told Johnson.
She acknowledged feeling “very shaky” over the situation.
“Just want you to hear a little bit about my family. I have two medically fragile children. I have a husband who actively serves this country. He suffers from PTSD from his two tours in Afghanistan,” she said during the call. “If we see a lapse in pay come the 15th, my children do not get to get the medication that’s needed for them to live their life, because we live paycheck to paycheck.”
She pressed Johnson on the standalone bill.
“I’m begging you to pass this legislation. My kids could die,” Samantha said. “We don’t have the credit because of the medical bills that I have to pay regularly. You could stop this, and you could be the one that could say military is getting paid.”
The speaker — a Republican — expressed sympathy for Samantha and her family.
“Samantha, I’m so sorry to hear about your situation,” Johnson said, adding stories like hers is “what keeps me up at night.”
“The reason I’ve been so angry this week, and they’ve been calling me out on media — ‘Johnson’s angry.’ I am angry because of situations just like yours,” the speaker said.
However, when asked at a news conference in the Capitol on Wednesday if he would bring the House back to session and move a bill on the floor to pay military troops if the shutdown drags into next week, Johnson suggested he would not do so.
“We already had that vote. It’s called the [continuing resolution],” Johnson said at the news conference, referring the House GOP stopgap bill to fund the government until Nov. 21. The measure has failed to advance in the Senate.
Johnson also pointed to the continuing resolution while speaking with Samantha, arguing another vote on the floor to pay the troops would also fail in the Senate.
“We had a vote to pay the troops. It was the continuing resolution three weeks ago. Every single Republican but two voted to keep the government open so that your paycheck can flow. Every Democrat in the House, except for one, voted to close it. The Democrats are the ones that are preventing you from getting a check,” Johnson said.
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