Gov't Shutdown? 129,400 Military Paychecks Would Stop in Virginia, Gov. Wilder Wins UVA Center for Politics Award

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Government Shutdown? 129,400 Military Paychecks to Stop in Virginia

At 3p.m. the ball is in the court of the U.S. Senate to avert a government shutdown, which could happen at midnight tonight.

Below is a piece from Virginia Mercury by Ashley Murray regarding how active-military members in Virginia would be impacted by a government shutdown.

The White House is warning that a partial government shutdown would mean 1.3 million active-duty armed services members must keep working without receiving paychecks and hundreds of thousands of Pentagon employees would face furloughs.

According to September 2022 figures, numerous states are home to large numbers of troops who would work without pay until after the shutdown, including Virginia with 129,400; North Carolina with 95,900; Florida with 66,900; Georgia with 63,800; and Washington with 62,100.

“Nobody joins the military to get rich. You join because you love your country. You want to serve, and you’re willing to do it at some risk to yourself. But you have every expectation that the government is going to be able to pay a decent wage and take care of your family,” John Kirby, spokesperson for the Biden administration’s National Security Council, said on a call with reporters Tuesday.

“When (service members) don’t get their paychecks, electrical bills, water bills, rent, mortgage, grocery bills, all that stacks up to the great detriment of these young men and women,” he continued. “So in total, more than 1.3 million could actually face real financial hardship as they continue to show up to defend the rest of us.”

Service members would be paid retroactively upon the end of a shutdown, which could last hours, days or weeks.

Virginia Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Virginia Beach, last week introduced legislation that would ensure pay from service members, including members of the Coast Guard, is uninterrupted.  However, neither chamber has taken action on the bill yet.

Government shutdown Saturday?

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been unable to unify his party members on full-year government spending bills or even a short-term stopgap measure that would avoid a shutdown, which would occur Saturday night without action by Congress.

Far-right members of the conference want to further cut nondefense spending beyond an agreement that McCarthy reached with President Joe Biden, who signed it into law. Some also want to sever any Ukraine funding from a government funding deal.

The fiscal year ends Saturday, and McCarthy has only a slim margin of votes he can afford to lose. Additionally, any spending bills or short-term deals to avoid a funding lapse would need to be bipartisan enough to appeal to the Democrat-led Senate.

If no deal is reached before the year’s fiscal deadline, other parts under the Defense Department’s massive scope will be affected, the administration also warned.

Kirby said the Pentagon’s military recruitment programs as well as procurement and management of existing defense contracts will be disrupted if the department’s civilian employees are furloughed.

“All of this would prove disruptive to our national security and our efforts to address the critical needs of the American people. And again, the reason is these extreme House Republicans are basically turning their backs on a bipartisan budget deal that they worked out with the president, that two-thirds of them voted for just a few months ago,” he said.

The department’s civilian workforce totals 804,422, and roughly 430,000 could face furloughs, according to the Pentagon on Tuesday.

McCarthy’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the possibility of troops working without pay or Pentagon furloughs.

UVA Honors Wilder

From Wilder Visions: On September 30, The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics presented former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, whose political career spanned four decades, with its annual Defender of Democracy Award for taking “positive actions to improve or strengthen democracy.”

In 1989, Wilder, a Democrat, won election as the nation’s first Black gubernatorial candidate to prevail in a statewide, general election. He was also the first African American elected to the Virginia Senate post-Reconstruction and the first African American elected as the state’s lieutenant governor.

The 2023 Defender of Democracy Award is the second given by the center, but Wilder is the 10th person to receive it. In its inaugural event year last year, the center presented the award to nine U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Center for Politics Director Larry J. Sabato, who presented Wilder with the award Friday at a luncheon at the Rotunda Dome Room, said Wilder is a fighter on behalf of democracy

In 1969, in his run for Senate, his poster had his slogan and his slogan was, ‘You can make democracy work.’ So, from the very beginning to the present day, he has worked for democracy and to broaden participation and democracy and to make the system effective for everyone,” Sabato said in his introduction of Wilder.

He also recalled meeting Wilder while Sabato was an aide to another state senator.

“He was also in your category of those considered troublemakers, because you believed that Virginia had a future that was better than its past,” Sabato said. “It was not a popular position for a long time.”

Wilder attended racially segregated public schools in his hometown of Richmond and graduated from Virginia Union University in 1951 with a degree in chemistry. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War where he was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism in combat.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics, introduced Wilder at a Friday luncheon in the Rotunda at which the former governor was presented with the award. (Photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)

After the war, he earned his law degree from Howard University School of Law and established his own firm, Wilder, Gregory and Associates.

After leaving the governor’s mansion in 1995, Wilder tested the waters for a possible campaign for the U.S. Senate and even the presidency. In the early 2000s, he helped reform the governing structure of Richmond to create a strong-mayor form of government. Voters overwhelmingly approved the change. In 2004, Wilder was elected as Richmond’s first strong mayor in about 50 years.

When Wilder retired from the mayor’s office in 2009, he returned to his role as a professor at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“I am pleased to be here. I’m pleased to be anywhere, at my age,” Wilder, 92, joked on Friday, after receiving the award. “I am pleased to be anywhere and to have the opportunity to still engage and be a part of whatever is going on.”

Wilder told friends, family and students attending the luncheon that they must get involved in their communities and in politics, even if they cause trouble. (Photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)

Wilder recalled how he was not allowed under Virginia law to sit at the same table in a courtroom as a white attorney despite fighting in desegregated military units during the Korean War. He said his experiences growing up while facing racism during the Jim Crow era spurred him into politics.

“I was told, ‘You cannot be a member of the Richmond Bar Association, even though you passed the same test.’ I said, ‘There must be a reason for it.’ They said yes. I said, ‘What’s the reason?’ They said, ‘You’re Black.’ Well, you know, you can only take so much of that,” Wilder recalled.

Wilder also exhorted students who attended the awards luncheon alongside family, friends and well-wishers to get involved, even if it means getting in trouble.

“My slogan, ‘You can make democracy work,’ couldn’t be any more apropos today,” Wilder said. “You can make democracy work. You can demand what’s right, but you have to criticize what’s wrong. You can’t be afraid to do that and there will be those who will tell you that you will get in trouble.

“Well, if that’s the case, I’ve been in trouble my whole life.”

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