https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/28/government-shutdown-notice-federal-employees/
U.S. government starts notifying federal employees a shutdown may be imminent
The official warnings reflect Congress’s failure to extend funding past Saturday
“During this time, some of you will be temporarily furloughed while others who perform excepted functions will continue to execute your assigned duties,” read one of the notices, sent to employees at the Department of Homeland Security and obtained by The Washington Post.
“Our collective mission is of great importance,” agency leaders continued, “and each and every one of you contributes in meaningful ways to keeping our nation, the American people, and our way of life secure.”
A shutdown would force the government to pare back to only its most vital functions. The resulting disruptions are likely to be significant, especially if the stalemate persists for weeks, potentially dragging down the fragile U.S. economy while complicating many of the services on which millions of Americans and businesses rely.
Some federal programs, including Social Security and mail delivery, would be unaffected, because they are funded outside of the annual appropriations process on Capitol Hill. But many other government operations would be rendered inaccessible if funds expire — resulting in closed parks and passport offices, and worrisome interruptions affecting federal housing, food and health aid for the poor.
Caught in the middle are the nation’s roughly 2 million federal workers and its approximately 1.3 million active-duty troops. On Thursday morning, some agencies began alerting many of these workers about the prospects of a funding lapse, which means they cannot be paid for as long as Congress fails to come to an agreement — though they would get paid back once any shutdown ends.
Members of the military are expected to helm their posts even without pay, as are a select group of civilian employees — such as bag-inspection agents at airports and federal law enforcement officials — whose jobs are considered essential to public safety or national security. But the Biden administration has yet to inform workers individually if they are going to be furloughed or exempted from a shutdown, adding to the anxieties of a political feud that has roiled the nation’s capital.
Michael Linden, a former top official at the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the early notices reflected a political reality: Unlike past spending battles that yielded an eleventh-hour deal, “the chances of a shutdown are much higher.”
“If you’re 48 hours out from a potential shutdown, but it’s very clear there’s a [deal] on its path, then you might not do that,” he said. “But if there isn’t, you are going to have to tell agencies to tell their teams, so people can start to plan.”
As the federal government braced for impact, lawmakers prepared to return to work Thursday no closer to resolving their latest fiscal stalemate. In the Senate, Democrats and Republicans inched closer to finalizing a bipartisan agreement that would fund federal agencies into November, but it remained unclear if they could pass it in time — or if the GOP-controlled House would even bother to consider it.
There, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) pledged anew this week that he would advance a stopgap that addresses the demands of his far-right flank, including new border security provisions that many Democrats oppose. Some conservatives have also demanded deep spending cuts that Biden has rejected, while signaling they may not support any temporary funding agreement, known as a continuing resolution, at all.
Biden, for his part, told attendees of a Democratic fundraising event in San Francisco on Wednesday night that a shutdown would be “disastrous.” He called on Republicans earlier Wednesday to extend government funding, warning that a lapse in federal funding starting Sunday would jeopardize “a lot of vital work.”
In recent weeks, his administration has quietly prepared for a shutdown, instructing agencies to update their plans for how they would proceed without funding. The official blueprints suggest that congressional inaction could force the government to halt some food and water inspections; slash nutrition aid to millions of poor families; and imperil the provision of money to Florida, Puerto Rico and other communities still reeling from major natural disasters.
The disruptions would only worsen over time, especially if a shutdown next month rivals the last stoppage — a 34-day interruption starting in 2018 under President Donald Trump. Federal workers who go weeks without pay might cease showing up, potentially snarling air travel, while a series of programs that subsidize child care, college financial aid and public housing would start to exhaust their cash reserves, leaving lower-income Americans in a bind.
Federal employees, in particular, would face the “uncertainty of, ‘Will I ever make up for this lost paycheck?’” said Democratic Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, whose Virginia district includes a substantial number of government workers. The financial trouble could be more pronounced for contractors that serve Washington, who are not guaranteed pay in the event of a shutdown.
“The natural reaction for most people is to pull back,” he said, as these families look to conserve money. “You have this huge ripple effect from a shutdown that affects the economy writ large.”
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