The U.S. Army is accepting a donation of more than $1 million for the travel and lodging of soldiers attending a professional development conference in Washington next week, as active-duty forces prepare to potentially miss paychecks amid the government shutdown, officials tell Military Times.
The donation will allow hundreds of soldiers to have the opportunity to attend and participate in the annual conference of the Association of the United States Army, a nonprofit professional development association that serves the military service branch, according to AUSA’s deputy director of media operations Tom McCuin.
McCuin declined to comment on the amount of money donated by the non-profit but said it was “sufficient to cover all the travelers that the Army had planned ahead of time to bring.”
An official familiar with the donation, who spoke with Military Times on condition of anonymity, said that the figure was “more than a million,” without elaborating.
“This is an important professional development opportunity, and we are doing our best to make sure that the Army can bring all the people that it thought it needed to bring to take advantage of all that,” McCuin told Military Times on Friday.
The donation, he said, funds travel for generals, their staff and any other soldiers who had planned to attend. The conference is a showcase for six contemporary military forums and warrior corners on the show floor for smaller, shorter Ted-talk type discussions.
“We can’t do those without Army participation because they are addressing topics that are current, pressing issues for the Army,” he told Military Times. “Without Army input on that, the conversation would be incomplete.”
CNN was first to report news of the donation.
During a government shut down, service members and federal employees do not receive pay checks, and there are typically no funds available to pay for government-related travel or per diems.
Ahead of the conference, AUSA had urged Congress break the impasse to make timely, reliable and consistent funding available for the Army to successfully complete its missions.
One military spouse from Fort Belvoir called into C-SPAN on Thursday to tell House Speaker Mike Johnson she was disappointed in her party, which controls the House, Senate and White House, for not passing legislation to ensure pay for the military.
“I have two medically fragile children. I have a husband who actively serves this country. He suffers from PTSD from his two tours in Afghanistan. If we see a lapse in pay come the 15th, my children do not get to get the medication that’s needed for them to live their life, because we leave paycheck to paycheck,” she told him.
“My kids could die,” she added.
Johnson responded by blaming the Democrats for voting against the continuing resolution that would have kept the government open.
“The Democrats are the ones that are preventing you from getting a check,” Johnson said.
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