Insufficient to Cover Salaries for 1.3 Million Active-Duty Service Members
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump announced that it had received a donation of $130 million (approximately 190 billion won) from a private individual to pay active-duty military personnel during the federal government "shutdown" (temporary suspension of operations).
According to the New York Times (NYT) and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 24th (local time), President Trump stated at a White House event the previous day that a private donor had contributed $130 million to the administration.
President Trump did not disclose the identity of the donor, referring to him only as a "patriot" and his "friend."
Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell also announced in a statement that day that the Department of Defense had accepted the donation under its "general gift acceptance authority."
He added that this donation was made on the condition that it would be used to offset the costs of salaries and allowances for military personnel.
The general gift acceptance authority allows the U.S. Department of Defense to receive and use donations for service members and civilian employees who are injured or become ill in the line of duty.
However, the amount donated is considered insufficient to provide adequate pay for all active-duty U.S. military personnel.
Currently, there are 1.3 million active-duty U.S. service members. If the donation were distributed equally, each would receive only about $100 (140,000 won).
According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the U.S. federal government spent over $191 billion (275 trillion won) on military salaries last year. An average of $7 billion (10 trillion won) is spent on military salaries every two weeks.
As the temporary budget bill continues to fail due to partisan conflict in Congress, some federal government functions have been suspended since the 1st of this month, raising concerns that active-duty military personnel may not receive their regular pay this month.
According to OMB data, the most recent salaries paid to service members were covered by $8 billion (1.15 trillion won) in unused funds from the Department of Defense's research and development budget.
Active-duty service members have continued to serve during the shutdown. Currently, the U.S. military workforce consists of approximately 1.3 million active-duty personnel and about 2 million civilian employees.
Other federal agency employees in the United States are either on unpaid leave or working without pay until Congress passes a budget bill.
The previous day, the U.S. Senate put a bill to a vote that would have provided pay to federal employees whose salaries were suspended due to the shutdown, but it failed to pass.
As a result, more than 500,000 federal government employees were unable to receive any of their two weeks' pay on the payday of the 24th.
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