UPDATED: How a Government Shutdown Impacts Pay, Benefits

This story was last updated Jan. 20.

The nation slipped into a government shutdown this morning as Congress hit a stalemate over operations funding for 2018.

How does a shutdown impact military and retiree pay and benefits or payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs?

The Defense Department issued some specific guidance as the shutdown loomed late Jan. 19. Here's what we know:

Active-duty troops, as well as Guard and Reserve members, do not get paid during a shutdown unless Congress passes a separate piece of legislation to do so. Such a bill pay was awaiting action from the House and Senate Saturday.

Without that legislation, known as the Pay Our Military Act, troop paychecks will not go out Feb. 1.

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VA DISABILITY PAY & GI BILL BENEFITS

Like retiree pay, VA disability pay and GI Bill payments are both funded through different legislation than is at risk on the Hill. For that reason, those checks are unlikely to be affected by a brief shutdown.

However, during the last shutdown in 2013, VA officials warned that if the closure extended beyond several weeks, disability checks were unlikely to go out to more than 5.1 million veterans.

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https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/01/18/how-government-shutdown-would-impact-pay-benefits.html