The US Army is accepting a donation of roughly $1 million for the travel and lodging of senior leaders to a professional development conference in Washington, DC, next week, as active duty forces are bracing for a missed paycheck amid the government shutdown, multiple US officials told CNN.
Many of the Army leaders and their staffs who had already processed paperwork to attend the annual Association of the US Army conference in downtown DC next week will have their travel, hotels and meals covered by funds donated by Association of the United States Army. AUSA is a nonprofit professional development association that serves the Army.
A spokesperson for AUSA, Tom McCuin, declined to comment on the donation amount but said it was “enough to fund what the Army had planned to bring.”
The viability of the conference had been in question after the government shut down, which meant there were no funds to pay for travel or per diems. One of the US officials said it is standard for AUSA to donate money to the Army to bring in leaders for the conference, though they said it appears the recent $1 million donation was in addition to the typical amount due to funding challenges brought by the shutdown. McCuin also said AUSA provides a “proffer” to the Army ever year to cover some attendees, and has since 2013.
“I think the Secretary was keen to make sure that people had the opportunity to attend what is first and foremost a professional development event,” McCuin said. “Because of the shutdown, there’s no money in the budget in the travel, and we were able to help out with that.”
The annual AUSA conference is a sprawling gathering in downtown DC of Army leaders, their staffs, defense industry executives and foreign military representatives. Typically, senior leaders have held media roundtables and press conferences, while military officials have attended speaking engagements, workshops and received updates on the Army’s goals in the upcoming year.
A second US official said the intent for bringing the senior leaders in for the conference was to attend the Leader Solarium event, an invitation-only event for battalion commanders and sergeants major across the Army. The US official described it as a workshop where the invited leaders pitch solutions to a posed problem statement to the Army secretary, chief of staff, and sergeant major of the Army.
“I can’t tell you a single actionable initiative to come out of it,” the second official said. The first US official said who would come was being determined based on things like the presentations they were expected to give or participate in.
The conference comes as National Guard troops deployed in DC and various other cities around the country, including Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago, as well as active-duty forces around the globe, are not receiving their next paycheck. CNN reported last week that military families were bracing for a missed paycheck on October 15; some families have preemptively visited their local food pantries to stock up on groceries and supplies in case the shutdown drags on.
The first US official said it was “devastating” that troops were facing financial hardship because of the shutdown — particularly more junior service members who may not have a savings cushion to rely on.
“We need to engage with industry and tell them the things we need and want, and we need to tell the Army story to America and highlight the great things our soldiers are doing … I totally can see that it just doesn’t look great especially when our whole force is about to miss a pay period or two or three, or however long this thing goes,” the official said.