With day nine of the federal government shutdown upon us and no end in sight after the Senate rejected both Republican and Democratic plans to reopen (their 6th failed vote), President Donald Trump doubled down on threats to block some furloughed federal workers from receiving back pay once the shutdown is over - but insisted that members of the military don't have to worry about missing their next paychecks - signaling support for standalone legislation to ensure they're paid. 

Republican Rep. Ken Calvert - who's in charge of defense funding, has also thrown his weight behind the bill, which was introduced by Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) in mid-September, and has been gaining steam since the shutdown began Oct. 1. 

House Democratic leadership supports the standalone bill to ensure military troop payments. 

In a Thursday morning C-SPAN interview, meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) took several calls from unhappy Americans - one of whom was a military wife from Virginia, who pleaded with him to reopen the government or pass funding so her family doesn't miss a paycheck on Oct 15. 

"As a Republican, I'm very disappointed in my party, and I'm very disappointed in you, because you have the power to call the House back," she said. "You refuse to do that, just for a show."

Johnson replied that situations like hers keep him up at night (lol sure), and that the House already tried to vote to pay the troops when it passed a short-term government funding extension that the Senate refuses to pass.

"The Democrats are the ones that are preventing you from getting a check," Johnson said. 

Meanwhile, the IRS on Wednesday announced that it would furlough some 34,000 employees - nearly half the agency's staff, adding to the approximately 750,000 furloughed workers government-wide. 

On Friday, federal employees should expect smaller paychecks, which covers work between Sept. 21 and Oct. 4, so they'll only be paid for work between Sept. 21 and Oct. 1. 

Under the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, federal workers should receive retroactive pay after the shutdown - however a leaked internal memo revealed that the Trump administration interpreted the Act to place the responsibility on Congress to authorize payments.