Despite being less than a week away from the government’s funding deadline, and with lawmakers still far from reaching a spending agreement, agencies have not published their plans for what would happen during a government shutdown.
Often, leading up to a possible government shutdown, agencies will publish or update their shutdown contingency plans, which are made publicly available on the Office of Management and Budget’s website. Those plans typically detail how many federal employees at each agency would continue to work — and how many would be furloughed — if a shutdown were to happen.
But even with the fast-approaching deadline for Congress to reach a spending agreement for fiscal 2026 appropriations, OMB’s webpage that usually hosts that contingency information is completely blank.
OMB did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Federal News Network, asking if the Trump administration intends to publish agencies’ contingency plans, or if there were any alternative government shutdown planning efforts currently in the works.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration removed all contingency plans that agencies had assembled ahead of previous threats of government shutdowns over the last couple years. Agencies typically update their contingency plans every other year, most recently after OMB in 2023 during the Biden administration told agencies to update those documents.
At the time, Federal News Network conducted a data analysis and found that agencies had planned for hundreds of thousands of federal employees to be furloughed — which would have left roughly 65% of the overall federal civilian workforce to continue working through a shutdown, either with or without pay.
Those 2023 numbers, however, may not line up with what agencies would do this time around in a government shutdown, given that each presidential administration handles shutdown plans differently. But without no contingency plans publicly listed, those federal employee breakdowns remain unclear.
During a government shutdown, federal employees generally fall into one of three categories: excepted, furloughed or exempt. Excepted employees continue to work throughout a shutdown, while furloughed employees stop working entirely for the duration of a shutdown. Employees from both groups are not paid during a shutdown, but are guaranteed backpay after a shutdown ends, due to a 2019 law.
Exempt employees continue to work and get paid as usual during a shutdown, since their agencies are funded through sources other than congressional appropriations.
A government shutdown would broadly impact the work, pay and benefits of many federal employees. Federal News Network has compiled more information on what happens to federal salaries, health insurance and more during a government shutdown.
During President Donald Trump’s first term, agencies saw the longest ever partial government shutdown, which lasted 35 days between December 2018 and January 2019. Around the same time, Congress also passed legislation to guarantee backpay for both furloughed and excepted federal employees.
But this time around, the situation in the federal government looks different. Over the course of the year, agencies have shed approximately 200,000 federal employees through the deferred resignation program, reductions in force, retirements and other separations. Trump administration officials have said they expect the number of federal employees leaving their jobs to surpass 300,000 by December.
“A shutdown will only compound that problem by causing increased service outages and customer service backlogs,” Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, said Tuesday.
Stier also argued that in the case of a shutdown, Trump and OMB would have “enormous latitude” in deciding what services, programs and employees would continue, and what would get sidelined, if lawmakers fail to reach a spending agreement by the Sept. 30 deadline.
At the same time, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association said although the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the five-week partial shutdown in 2018 and 2019 cost the U.S. economy about $11 billion, the costs this time could be much higher.
“The damage would be even greater given Congress has not appropriated full-year funding for any government agency,” NARFE National President William Shackelford said. “A lapse in appropriations will force millions of federal workers to go without pay, shutter critical agency operations, harm the national economy and burden the American people in every congressional district.”
And even before a potential government shutdown occurs, the National Treasury Employees Union said federal employees already begin feeling high levels of uncertainty, as their agencies determine who would continue working during a shutdown, and who would be furloughed.
“The uncertainty itself is enough to create real tension in the workplace,” NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald said. “And work hours that should be focused on agency missions are now consumed by shutdown procedures. We all know shutdowns are wasteful, but so are the days leading up to them.”
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at drewfriedman.11
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