House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters during a Capitol briefing on Wednesday that he won't call a separate vote in the chamber to guarantee pay for military service members during the government shutdown.

The Louisiana Republican said the House "already had that vote" in the continuing resolution (CR) and suggested it's now up to Senate Democrats to get to work.

"Of course, we want to pay our troops and our air traffic controllers and our border patrol agents and TSA, and everybody else. We did have that vote in the House," Johnson said.

Johnson has held a series of briefings in which he has attacked Democrats for failing to approve a clean stopgap funding measure to keep the government open while negotiations on federal spending continue.

He said there's nothing to negotiate. "Democrats claim they want to negotiate, but that is already happening in a bipartisan, bicameral fashion."

Johnson said Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is putting on a show.

"This shutdown is nothing more than political cover for Chuck Schumer and the Democrats. They are worried about the Marxist flank in their Democrat Party."

The speaker previously claimed Schumer is terrified of the far left flank of his party and on Wednesday added to that saying, "I've noted that Chuck Schumer is a very far left politician, but he's not far enough left for the Communists."

He said Schumer may be in a fight for his political future.

"And they're coming for him. And so he has to put up his dukes and show a fight. So they picked a fight on something that's not even related at all to the shutdown and the funding that we should have gotten done by the end of September."

Johnson suggested it would be a simple process for the Senate Democrats to approve the House-passed stopgap and reopen government to allow more time for a complete spending plan to be approved.

"We just need a stopgap measure," he said, "to give us a little more time to get the job of Congress done. They refuse to do it because they're playing politics, and real Americans are paying the price for it."

Senate leaders are still struggling to agree on a short-term funding measure to reopen the federal government.

Republicans are backing a "clean" CR that would extend government funding for several weeks, arguing that reopening should come first and that broader policy issues can be debated later.

Democrats oppose that approach, insisting any deal must include healthcare subsidy extensions to prevent coverage disruptions.

So far, neither side has reached the 60-vote threshold needed to advance its proposal.

The White House has added pressure by warning that furloughed federal employees may not automatically receive back pay unless Congress includes it in a final bill.

Democrats dispute that position. Limited talks continue with no agreement in sight, and both parties blaming the other for the prolonged shutdown.