OAN Staff Blake Wolf
2:49 PM – Thursday, October 23, 2025
Senate Democrats moved to kill a GOP-sponsored bill that would have provided pay for active-duty military members and essential federal employees working through the government shutdown.
The 2025 Shutdown Fairness Act, sponsored by Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), failed to pass with a 54-45 vote, falling short of the 60 votes needed to advance due to Democrat opposition.
Notably, Senators John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) were the only Democrats to vote with Republicans on the bill’s passage.
The Shutdown Fairness Act would have ensured pay for essential federal employees and U.S. service members classified as “excepted” or performing emergency work during the government shutdown.
Additionally, it proposed a permanent funding mechanism to support these workers during any future shutdowns.
“I just hope, on a nonpartisan basis, we do something that makes sense around here for once,” Johnson stated prior to the vote on the bill.
“With Democrats continuing the Schumer Shutdown, they should at least agree to pay all the federal employees that are forced to continue working. The 2025 Shutdown Fairness Act is a permanent fix that will ensure excepted workers and our troops are paid during a shutdown,” he added.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) labeled the measure a “ruse,” arguing that the bill would allow President Donald Trump “even more power to decide who gets paid and who gets punished” as the shutdown drags on.
“It’s nothing more than another tool for Trump to hurt federal workers and American families and to keep this shutdown going for as long as he wants.”
“We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people’s livelihoods. That’s why we oppose this,” Schumer added.
Speaker Mike Johnson has since slammed Schumer and his party for opposing the bill, emphasizing that they are “willingly inflicting” pain on the American people.
“UNBELIEVABLE. After Senate Democrats claimed they wanted a bill that would pay essential workers… Republicans gave them a chance to vote on a bill that would do that — and they BLOCKED IT. The good news is both Georgia Democrat senators finally broke ranks from Chuck Schumer and joined Republicans to support this simple bill — a clear sign they know Democrats’ position on this shutdown is INDEFENSIBLE. But make no mistake: Democrats are still putting their own politics over the pain they’re willingly inflicting on the American people,” Johnson wrote in a Thursday X post.
The failure to pass the bill comes as the government shutdown enters its fourth week. The Senate failed to pass a stopgap funding bill to reopen the government on Wednesday, representing the 12th failed vote as both sides remain entrenched in their respective positions.
Democrats have tied government reopening to their preferred healthcare policies, while Republican leaders have pledged to negotiate a healthcare deal only after the government is back in operation.
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