Is the military’s ‘stress card’ a myth? Federal workers wait for pay, Congress doesn’t. Here’s why.

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Transcript

00:00Finally this morning, we're turning to your questions and comments.

00:07This is Straight From You, where we fact-check claims, separate fact from fiction, and call out what's murky.

00:12So here's what stood out this week.

00:14First, the government shutdown. Everybody's talking about it, right? Or at least paying attention.

00:18A viewer put it bluntly.

00:19ICE works unpaid. The military works unpaid. Congress still gets paid.

00:24Well, you're not wrong, but there is some nuance.

00:26Here's the deal. When funding stops, federal agencies activate shutdown plans. Simple enough.

00:32Civilian workers may be furloughed. Accepted staff, like ICE, TSA, and Border Patrol, keep working without pay until the funding resumes.

00:41The same goes for active-duty military.

00:44A 2019 law now guarantees back pay for both groups, but members of Congress, they still get paid.

00:51That's because their salaries come from a permanent appropriation in the Constitution.

00:55Yep. Shut down or not.

00:58Next up, the story of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announcing strict changes in the military this week.

01:04A viewer said they once saw a soldier refuse a uniform order and flash a yellow stress card.

01:10So here's the reality.

01:12Stress cards that allow troops to skip orders? Not a thing.

01:16Snopes traces it to the 1990s, when the Navy briefly gave out cards with hotline information.

01:22However, they were not excuses, and the practice ended quickly.

01:26The Army had tools to measure stress, not stop training.

01:30The Defense Department has debunked this myth for years.

01:34Why are we hearing about it again?

01:36Because Hegseth and President Trump just pushed a tougher warrior ethos at Quantico.

01:41Fitness tests, grooming standards, and tougher training.

01:44In making the case that training got too soft, Hegseth invoked stress cards on Fox News with Laura Ingram, which keeps the legend alive.

01:52By the way, the producer of this segment is a U.S. Marine, and he has never seen a stress card.

01:58All right, number three.

01:59A lot of you are asking about the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.

02:03A viewer put it this way.

02:05Here's the question.

02:06With a grand jury vote of just 14 out of 23, how can prosecutors possibly get a unanimous 12 out of 12 jurors to convict at trial?

02:15That's a sharp and good question.

02:17It gets to the heart of the legal hurdle.

02:19Indeed, the vote to indict was 14 out of 23.

02:23That clears the probable cause bar, but just barely.

02:26To get a conviction, prosecutors need all 12 trial jurors to agree beyond a reasonable doubt.

02:32A much higher standard, obviously.

02:35That narrow grand jury margin, legal analysts say it's a red flag, a tough road ahead for sure for the government.

02:42Keep dropping comments on our YouTube, asking questions, and we'll tackle the biggest ones next week.