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WASHINGTON, October 29. /TASS/. The US administration will pay wages to some of its service members this Friday, despite the shutdown, Vice President JD Vance was quoted as saying by Politico. "We believe that we can continue to pay the troops on Friday," he said after addressing a closed-door Senate GOP lunch. "Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to pay everybody, because we’ve been handed a very bad hand by the Democrats." According to the report, the Pentagon made payments to active duty troops earlier this month by tapping a Defense Department research and development account. At the same time, the vice president has not released details about how the upcoming paychecks will be funded. Last week, US President Donald Trump announced that the Department of War has received an anonymous donation of $130 million to fund compensation payments to employees during the partial suspension of the federal government - the shutdown. Trump did not disclose his identity, saying only that it was a "patriot" and a "friend." Later, The New York Times wrote citing own sources that the funds were provided by Timothy Mellon, a billionaire and a major backer of Trump who earlier financed his election campaign. The US federal government partially suspended work at midnight on October 1 due to the lack of funding after the ruling Republican and opposition Democratic parties in the US Congress failed to agree on some expenditure items, including healthcare, and accused each other of provoking the shutdown and prolonging it for political purposes. According to US law, ministries and departments responsible for ensuring national security and foreign policy activities continue to operate during shutdowns. Similar requirements are imposed on those civil servants whose activities are aimed at "protecting life and property." The government employees who are forced to go to work in such conditions do not receive a salary, but it is usually paid to them after the issue with the receipt of funds is resolved. Since 1977, funding for the federal government has been interrupted more than 20 times due to disagreements between the administration and Congress. The longest period was 35 days, from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019, during Trump's first term as president.
