Despite nearly half of all House Republicans supporting a bill to pay military service members during the shutdown, Speaker Mike Johnson says the chamber will not be brought back into session until the Senate passes the clean funding bill. Mr. Johnson says bringing back the House to vote on the military pay bill would be nothing more than a “show vote” for Democrats. 

With the shutdown on its ninth day, federal employees are set to miss their first paychecks in the middle of next week. In order to save the military from such pain, a Republican lawmaker, Congresswoman Jen Kiggans, has introduced a bill to ensure all uniformed military and civilian personnel receive pay until the government is reopened. 

“I’m urging the Speaker and our House leadership to immediately pass my bill to ensure our servicemembers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck while supporting their families, receive the pay they’ve earned,” Ms. Kiggans said in a statement on Wednesday. 

Mr. Johnson, however, says no such vote will take place. 

The speaker appeared on C-SPAN’s call-in show Thursday morning, where he was pressed by a military wife and mother of two sick children who says she cannot afford basic necessities while the shutdown continues. She identified herself as a Republican. 

“I want you to hear something very clearly: the Republicans are the ones delivering for you. We had a vote to pay the troops. It was the continuing resolution three weeks ago,” Mr. Johnson told the caller. “The Democrats are the ones that are preventing you from getting a check.”

“If we did another vote on the floor to pay troops, it’s not a law-making exercise because Chuck Schumer is gonna hold that up in the Senate,” the speaker added. 

When pressed by the host about calling the House back into session just to vote on the military pay bill, Mr. Johnson said Democrats are just trying to solve their own political problem. 

“You know why they are? Because they all voted on the record three weeks ago to stop pay for the troops. They’re desperate to try to get on the record, but that would be a show vote for Democrats,” Mr. Johnson said. “They do not care about it.”

“Look at what they do and how they vote — not what they say,” he added. 

There is some angst within Mr. Johnson’s own Republican conference about this issue, however. Ms. Kiggans’s military pay bill already has 148 co-sponsors, including 104 members of the GOP. That is nearly half of the House Republican conference. 

On Thursday, one of Mr. Johnson’s top allies in the chamber, Congressman Ken Calvert — who, as an appropriations subcommittee chairman, is charged with writing the annual defense budget — signed on to Ms. Kiggans’s bill. 

Two other members of GOP leadership — Congressman Richard Hudson and Congresswoman Elise Stefanik — are also co-sponsors of the legislation. 

The minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, says that House Democrats are behind Ms. Kiggans’s push for military pay, and that Mr. Johnson should bring the House back for a vote. 

“I support the effort of our members to make sure that that takes place,” Mr. Jeffries told reporters Wednesday. “Shame on the Republicans for remaining on vacation, and even refusing to pay our troops because of their continued effort to gut the health care of the American people.”