About 334,900 civilian employees at the Defense Department will be furloughed in the event of a government shutdown, according to the department’s contingency plan released over the weekend.
The department employs roughly 741,500 civilians, according to the contingency plan. Of those, approximately 24% — or about 182,700 — are funded through sources other than the annual appropriations bill now stalled in Congress.
Another 30% — about 223,900 — are designated as “excepted” personnel whose work must continue regardless of the lapse in funding. Excepted work includes protecting human life, such as providing medical care or emergency response, and safeguarding property.
That leaves the remaining 45% of the department’s civilian workers furloughed until Congress approves new funding.
Neither furloughed nor excepted employees are paid during a shutdown, although a 2019 law guarantees back pay once the government reopens.
“Civilian personnel, including military technicians, who are not necessary to carry out or support excepted activities, are to be furloughed using lapse in appropriations procedures and guidance provided by the Office of Personnel Management,” the contingency plan reads. “Only the minimum number of civilian employees necessary to carry out excepted activities will be excepted from furlough. Positions that provide direct support to excepted positions may also be deemed excepted if they are critical to performing the excepted activity.”
“Determinations regarding the status of civilian positions will be made on a position-by-position basis,” the plan said.
To prepare for a shutdown, government agencies publish contingency plans outlining how a shutdown would impact their operations, including which activities would be paused until the government reopens and which activities would continue.
The Defense Department has identified operations to secure the U.S. southern border, Middle East operations, Golden Dome for America, depot maintenance, shipbuilding and munitions as its top priorities. Efforts supporting these activities can continue during a funding lapse if they are already resourced with money that hasn’t expired, according to the contingency plan.
If efforts supporting the department’s highest priorities require funding from an appropriation that has lapsed, senior officials will evaluate whether the efforts qualify as excepted.
The Defense Department said it will continue a wide range of “safety of human life or the protection of property” operations if the government shuts down. Military deployments, support for combatant commands, recruiting and training tied to contingency operations, and critical command-and-control and intelligence functions will move forward. Emergency response, medical care for troops and their families and mortuary services will also continue.
The list of excepted activities also includes “counterdrug activities determined to be necessary for the safety of human life or the protection of property” and “other activities authorized by the Secretary of War to provide for the safety of human life or the protection of property.”
Activities, such as general intelligence analysis unrelated to ongoing operations, elective medical procedures, acquisition support, congressional outreach and community outreach programs would be suspended until funding is restored.
Military personnel
During a shutdown, service members on active duty, including reserve component personnel on federal active duty, will continue to report for duty and carry out assigned duties even though they won’t receive a paycheck until the government reopens.
House lawmakers recently introduced legislation that would guarantee pay for service members, civilian employees and contractors if Congress fails to pass legislation to keep the government, but the bill has not been enacted.
Permanent Change of Station (PCS) moves for military personnel are limited during a shutdown to mission-critical transfers, accession and training moves, and separation moves that were already funded before the lapse.
Details to other federal agencies
Military and civilian employees who are temporarily detailed to other agencies on a reimbursable basis will have to coordinate with their home organization and legal counsel to determine whether they can lawfully continue their assignment.
The Defense Department recently authorized its civilian employees to participate in details to the Department of Homeland Security to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also approved a plan earlier this month to detail up to 600 military lawyers to the Justice Department as temporary immigration judges.
Contracts
The Defense Department said vendors may continue working under contracts awarded before a shutdown as long as funding was already obligated. Those vendors can continue to provide services even if they are not tied to excepted activities only if they do not require access to government facilities, oversight by furloughed employees or use of government resources that would incur additional obligations.
New contracts, task orders or funding increases cannot be issued during a lapse unless they directly support an excepted activity.
Lawmakers have until midnight on Sept. 30 to avoid a lapse in government funding. The funding bill has already passed the House, but it needs to get through the Senate, where Republicans need Democrats’ help to pass the bill.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) received significant blowback from Democratic voters in March after he and other Democrats joined Republicans in approving a six-month funding deal — the Democratic base said the party gave in too quickly to the GOP demands. This time, Democratic leaders say they are on a firmer political ground and are considering a risky shutdown.
Hundreds of federal workers across more than 50 agencies, for example, signed a petition urging Democrats to “rein in executive lawlessness” and protect vital public services even if it means they have to shut down the government. The coalition said they want a stopgap funding bill that does not just “keep the lights on but includes checks on this administration’s authoritarian overreach and protections for institutions and federal workers.”
“We do not want a shutdown, but we would rather have a shutdown than the continued dismantling of our institutions and destruction of our public goods that are causing harm to the American people,” Mollie Manier, an employee at the National Institutes of Health, said earlier this month.
Meanwhile, organizations like Software in Defense Coalition, the Alliance for Commercial Technology in Government and Defense Entrepreneurs Forum urged Congress Monday to pass a continuing resolution and direct agencies to provide earlier guidance to contractors on which activities would be exempt during a shutdown for safety of human life and protection of property.
The organizations warned that a shutdown will halt or delay acquisition programs, testing, contracting, logistics and depot maintenance — disruptions that carry a steep price. In addition, a 2018 Senate review found that the previous three shutdowns cost taxpayers nearly $4 billion in back pay, lost revenue and late fees.
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email anastasia.obis@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at (301) 830-2747.
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