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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Republican-backed bill a “ruse” that could end up extending the shutdown. “We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people’s livelihoods,” he said. Instead, Democrats supported a bill that would pay all federal employees and contractors. But Republicans sank the legislation. “Republicans are hell-bent on letting Trump pick winners and losers here, but every federal worker, servicemember, and federal contractor deserves to get paid,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat behind that bill, said in a statement. Last week, the President announced that his Administration received an anonymous private donation of $130 million to help pay troops during the shutdown. Trump didn’t reveal the name of the person behind the donation, but the New York Times reported that billionaire Timothy Mellon was the private donor in question. According to the outlet, the federal government’s budget for the year requested about $600 billion in total military compensation. With more than 1.3 million active troops, the $130 million donation would come out to about $100 a service member, the Times reported.
