Congress Considers Spending Bill To Avert Government Shutdown

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Large swaths of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/29/government-shutdown-updates/" target=_blank>federal government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Sunday</a> unless Congress passes last-minute spending bills, leaving hundreds of thousands of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2023/which-federal-employees-work-furloughed-government-shutdown/" target=_blank>federal employees furloughed</a>.

Many operations will continue even in a funding lapse, though. The federal workforce of 2.2 million will be either working <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/29/furloughed-workers-government-shutdown/" target=_blank>with pay, working without pay or not working</a> and not being paid.

A shutdown survival guide: Here's what government employees need to know

Some agencies, like the U.S. Postal Service and Citizenship and Immigration Services, are self-funding and do not depend on appropriations from Congress. Others, including large parts of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Transportation, operate with multiyear funding that is less impacted by year-to-year budget bills passed by Congress. The majority of employees in these agencies are “exempt” from a furlough and continue to work and be paid as normal.

The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/23/government-shutdown-spending-bill-vote/" target="_blank">Senate approved a $1.2 trillion spending bill</a> in the wee hours of Saturday morning to prevent a brief partial government shutdown, sending the bill to President Biden to sign into law. See how every <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/03/23/senate-vote-government-shutdown-bill-results/" target="_blank">Senate</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/03/22/house-vote-government-shutdown-bill-results/" target="_blank">House member voted</a>.

At agencies that depend on appropriations from Congress, hundreds of thousands of people will remain on the job even in a shutdown because their work involves public safety, the protection of property or certain other responsibilities designated as essential. These employees will not be paid during a shutdown.

In D.C., government shutdown specials include $1 beers and $5 sliders

The rest of the government is put on unpaid furlough. These employees cannot substitute vacation days or other paid time off for the unpaid time. Millions of contractors working for federal agencies will also go without pay during the shutdown.

Even within agencies that Congress funds, some programs are funded by fees, trust funds or multiyear budgets. These employees will continue working and getting paid as long as the money holds out.

Here’s what else federal employees and contractors need to know about a likely shutdown:

With no spending bills passed by Congress, day-to-day operations would be affected across the government. That’s a bigger impact than the last shutdown during the Trump administration, which lasted 34 days in late December 2018 and early January 2019. That lapse in funding affected about 800,000 of nearly 2.2 million federal employees because appropriations from Congress were in place for some agencies. Among them was the Defense Department, the largest employer of federal workers.

As a shutdown looms, see where federal employees live in the U.S.

Would each agency furlough the same number of employees?

Individual agencies decide who remains at work under what are known as <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-for-agencies/agency-contingency-plans/" target=_blank>contingency plans. </a> All plans are expected to be updated by Thursday. Furloughs range from a majority to a fraction of the staff depending on the agency. Of the 800,000 employees affected by the 2018-2019 shutdown, about 380,000 initially were furloughed, while the rest worked without pay.

Yes. Traditionally, only those who remained on the job during a shutdown were guaranteed to be paid later, because the government incurred an obligation to pay them by requiring them to work. Congress previously voted after each shutdown ended to pay furloughed employees as if they had worked.

But before the last shutdown ended in 2019, Congress guaranteed that all furloughed employees then and in future shutdowns would be paid along with those who had worked.

When they are eventually paid depends on an agency’s payroll cycle. Almost all federal employees work on a two-week pay cycle that ends on a Saturday, with checks coming about a week after the last day of work. If a shutdown starts and ends within a cycle, there may be no delay in pay.

The small group of House Republicans who might force a government shutdown

What happens to federal contractors during a shutdown?

Without funding, contractors must either stop working or risk not getting paid if they continue. Unlike federal civilian employees, contractors do not receive back pay unless their company provides it. But it’s not subject to reimbursement by the government.

Does the military work during a shutdown?

Military personnel on active duty, including reserves, continue to report for duty and carry out their assigned duties. They are not paid until the shutdown ends.

Do teleworking employees work during a shutdown?

Vast swaths of government employees are continuing to work from home following the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">coronavirus</a> pandemic, but nothing about a shutdown affects them differently from colleagues who report to work in offices. Remote and teleworking employees who are put on furlough are not to work, even on a volunteer basis.

Any previously scheduled leave that occurs during a shutdown is canceled, and employees are not charged. Previously scheduled “use-or-lose” annual leave is restored.

Both furloughed and excepted federal employees receive credit for any annual and sick leave they would otherwise have accrued during the shutdown once Congress restores appropriations.

What can unpaid employees do to help pay the bills?

They can take outside jobs, but even while furloughed, they remain subject to government ethics rules restricting outside income and to conflict of interest policies.

They can apply for unemployment benefits, which are paid under state laws. However, those laws typically include a waiting period of a week or more before benefits begin — and further require that anyone paid later for furlough time must return any benefits. Also, the federal government’s position is that those who are “excepted” and continuing to work without pay are not eligible for unemployment compensation unless they are performing that work only on an intermittent basis.

The majority of political appointees — top agency policy and management officials that each presidential administration installs, and those who directly support them — must report to work. They are not subject to furlough because their salary is an obligation incurred by the year, without consideration of hours of duty required, so they cannot be placed in what is called a non-duty, non-pay status. The exception is that the relatively few political appointees in the Senior Executive Service, the management layer between career employees and most political appointees, can be furloughed because they fall under regular federal employee leave policies.

How does a shutdown affect federal employee benefits?

Health insurance coverage continues during unpaid time. The enrollee’s share of premiums accumulates (for up to a year) and is withheld from their salary once the employee returns to pay status. For those enrolled in long-term care or vision-dental insurance programs and who pay through payroll withholdings, premiums accumulate for several unpaid pay periods. After that, they would be billed directly.

How a government shutdown would affect Medicare, Medicaid benefits

Life insurance coverage continues without cost to the employee for an unpaid period up to a year.

The shutdown would not affect future retirement benefits for current employees unless it drags on much longer than any past shutdowns. Investments in the Thrift Savings Plan, a 401(k)-style retirement savings program, are made through payroll withholding and cannot be made for employees in unpaid status. Agency contributions into employees’ accounts also are not made, because they are based on salary received. Once those employees return to paid status, their personal investments and agency contributions will be made retroactively from the back pay issued.

Annuity payments to retirees come from a trust fund that is not affected by a lapse in appropriations, so they are paid as normal, around the first business day of each month. The retirement application processing functions at the Office of Personnel Management also are not funded through appropriations and would continue as normal.

However, for federal employees newly applying to retire, there could be delays.

Wesleyan University, B.A. history

Lisa Rein covers federal agencies and the management of government in the Biden administration. At The Washington Post, she has written about the federal workforce; state politics and government in Annapolis, and in Richmond; local government in Fairfax County, Va.; and the redevelopment of Washington and its neighborhoods.

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