WASHINGTON — The Trump administration intends to use about $5.3 billion in Defense Department spending to cover troops’ pay and housing allowance during the government shutdown, with $2.8 billion of that sum being redirected from Navy shipbuilding accounts and departmentwide research and development programs, a congressional aide told Breaking Defense.
Citing two White House officials, Axios first reported the administration’s plan to use $2.5 billion from the One Big Beautiful Bill, plus $1.4 billion from the Navy’s shipbuilding and conversion account and $1.4 billion from its research, development, test and evaluation accounts to help stem the government shutdown’s impact on the military’s rank and file.
The congressional aide that confirmed those figures said that the reconciliation funding would be used to cover troops’ basic housing allowance. The reconciliation bill includes $2.9 billion in total that could be tapped for that purpose.
“President [Donald] Trump is continuing to make good on his promise to take care of the troops despite the fact Democrats have shut down the government and are fine with our bravest men and women getting no pay,” stated a Defense Department spokesperson, who directed further questions about the funding to the Office of Management and Budget.
OMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Congress has been closely watching how the Defense Department implements the $150 billion in defense funds included in the OBBB, $113 billion of which is slated to be used in fiscal year 2026.
The Pentagon is working through its implementation of the OBBB over several installments, with the first batch of requests approved by OMB and sent to Capitol Hill this month. The department has submitted requests to OMB that include $108 billion of the reconciliation funding, and OMB has approved and apportioned $89.3 billion so far, with $77 billion of that aligned to FY26, multiple sources told Breaking Defense.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker has been adamant that the Pentagon use the funding from the reconciliation funding in accordance with Congress’s guidance, and has repeatedly sought commitments from military and department leaders that they will adhere to lawmakers’ intent.
However, budget experts have cautioned that the Pentagon has some degree of funding flexibility in cases where the money is not explicitly tied to a particular program in the legislation.
Theresa Hitchens contributed to this report.