Coast Guard members will get final 2018 paychecks on time despite government shutdown – Washington Examiner

Members of the Coast Guard will get their final paycheck of the year on Monday after all, but they still don’t have a long-term guarantee of on-time pay.

This week, it was reported that 42,000 active-duty members of the Coast Guard would see their paychecks delayed until a partial government shutdown has ended.

But in a bulletin posted Friday, the Coast Guard announced that a solution had been worked out by the Trump administration.

“Will Coast Guard members get paid on Dec. 31? Yes, the Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Coast Guard have identified a way to pay our military workforce on Dec. 31, 2018,” reads the bulletin posted to the All Hands blog. “This one-time action applies to military members that served on active duty in the month of December and those reserve military members that drilled prior to the lapse in appropriation.”

Retirees will also get paid on Dec. 31.

The Coast Guard is subject to the consequences of the weeklong shutdown, unlike the other branches of the military, because it is funded by DHS. The other branches of the military are funded through the Defense Department, which received appropriation earlier this year.

The bulletin explained that the reversal occurred after “extensive research and legal analysis between the Coast Guard, DHS, and OMB determined the Coast Guard has the authority to execute the remainder of pay and allowances” until the end of the year.

Coast Guard members will not, however, be guaranteed paychecks on Jan. 15, the next scheduled pay date. It will be up to the White House and the new Congress to agree to a spending agreement to end the partial shutdown, but due to an impasse over border wall funding there is no end in sight.

In addition to the 42,000 active duty members of the Coast Guard, the Washington Post reports that 1,300 assigned to the Coast Guard could be impacted by the partial shutdown and that 7,400 Coast Guard civilians have been furloughed.