U.S. Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) and Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) believe that essential government workers should be paid even during this current federal government shutdown.
Democrats blocked the Shutdown Fairness Act of 2025 Thursday, a Republican-sponsored bill to pay active-duty members of the military and other essential federal employees who have been required to work during the government shutdown.
The bill failed to advance after a 54-45 vote because it needed 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. Tuberville and Britt joined a majority of Republicans in the Senate and voted in favor of the measure.
“Democrats hate our troops, police and ICE officers, air traffic controllers, and their own staff,” Tuberville said after the bill failed.
Republicans have criticized the Democrats for wanting expand subsides for Obamacare, which they argue means some of that money will pay for the healthcare of those who have entered the country illegally.
Britt recently told ABC News that this shutdown is based on “needless politics” by her colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
“We have people that are really paying the price,” Britt said. This weekend, I traveled all over the state of Alabama. I talked to people who had been furloughed. I talked to small business owners who said, Look, we can’t make it one more week. I talked to people who felt like that we were way out of touch up here, not making sure that the resources they depended on were there.”
“And so I think we’ve got to get back and make sure that the Democrats open the government so that people can get their paychecks, so that WIC can continue and truly so that things like food stamps don’t run out,” she added. “There are real issues that are coming to play because of the politics that Democrats are playing.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
