Republican senators have questions and concerns about how President Trump is managing to pay more than 1 million military service members during the government shutdown and are seeking more information about what funds he is dipping into to achieve his political ends.

Republican lawmakers are glad that active members of the military and their families around the country didn’t miss their first paychecks of the shutdown on Oct. 15, but they’re frustrated that Trump once again appears to be trampling on Congress’s power of the purse.

Traditionally, the White House needs to send a request to reprogram federal funding to Capitol Hill, and members of the Appropriations Committee need to approve it before an administration is able to shift funds away from the programs for which they were intended.

Republican appropriators say they are not aware of the White House sending a reprogramming request to Congress before Trump ordered Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds” to make sure that troops got their paychecks this week.

One Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on Trump’s aggressive repurposing of federal funding said the administration didn’t explain its legal authority.

“That’s a concern of not just appropriators, it seems broader than that,” the senator said.

The GOP lawmaker said Republican colleagues have asked the administration for more details about what accounts will be most impacted by shifting funds to pay the troops during the duration of the shutdown and what legal authority the White House is citing to justify its action.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she’s seeking more information from the White House, both on what funds are........

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