Kristi Noem says Coast Guard members will receive pay during the shutdown

Despite the government shutdown, Coast Guard service members will receive their paychecks this week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday evening.

Noem said the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Coast Guard, found an “innovative” way to save money. The announcement came two days after President Donald Trump said he would direct the Department of Defense to pay military personnel on Wednesday, even though the majority of government employees are not getting paid during the federal funding cut.

“President Trump did not want any of our military members to go without pay as a result of Democrats’ political theater, and we at DHS came up with an innovative solution to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Noem said. He said on X.

When asked for details about the “innovative solution” or where the funding would come from, a DHS spokesperson did not provide any new information and instead referred NBC News to the text of Noem’s social media post.

We’d like to hear from you how you’re coping with the government shutdown, whether you’re a federal employee who can’t work right now or someone feeling the effects of the shutdown in your daily life. Please contact us at tips@nbcuni.com Or contact us here.

The White House Office of Management and Budget said over the weekend that it plans to use research and development funds to deliver salaries to military service members this week.

The administration began laying off more than 4,000 federal workers across seven departments last week. Of those, 176 were DHS employees, according to a Justice Department court filing Friday. The layoffs are being challenged in court.

The moves to pay some uniformed service members who won’t get paid during the shutdown are the administration’s latest effort to make up for some of the less popular aspects of the funding lapse, which is about to hit the two-week mark.