{"id":195121,"date":"2025-10-01T16:48:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T16:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/195121\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:48:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T16:48:20","slug":"updated-shutdown-contingency-plans-show-range-of-impacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/195121\/","title":{"rendered":"Updated Shutdown Contingency Plans Show Range of Impacts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Pentagon’s plan says that of its 741,000 civilian employees, some 183,000 are paid \u201cby a resource other than annual appropriations\u201d, and another 224,000 would be excepted from furlough as needed to protect life and property\u2014about 55 percent.\t\t\t\t\t Image: Ritu Manoj Jethani \/ Shutterstock.com
\n\t\t\t\tBy: FEDweek Staff<\/a><\/p>\n

UPDATED: Some federal agencies\u2014including the two largest, DoD and VA\u2014have posted new breakdowns of which employees would be furloughed and which would be kept on the job\u2014and in the latter case, for what reason during a partial shutdown.<\/p>\n

Those postings show differences both in the shares of their workforces falling into different categories and how long even furloughed employees would be expected to remain on the job to conduct what the government calls \u201corderly shutdown operations\u201d such as securing their work.<\/p>\n

The postings come as OMB has changed prior policy of posting those \u201cshutdown contingency plans\u201d on its own site\u2014it earlier took down postings dating to the Biden administration\u2014instead leaving it up to individual agencies to post them. OMB has however continued to collect them and recently\u00a0prodded<\/a>\u00a0agencies to submit updated versions for its review.<\/p>\n

In that notice, OMB also told agencies to prepare to issue RIF notices to employees in functions whose funding authority would lapse, regardless of whether they would be expected to continue working, and to reevaluate who they would retain once funding is restored on grounds that their functions are required by law.<\/p>\n

In its newly posted\u00a0plan<\/a>, the VA for example said that largely because of long-term funding applying to its Veterans Health Administration, which accounts for the large majority of its 461,000 employees, plus positions \u201cnecessary to protect life and property,\u201d it would furlough fewer than 15,000\u2014only 3 percent. Pre-funded positions include not only those involved with patient care but also suicide prevention programs, homelessness programs, the Veterans Crisis Line and caregiver support.<\/p>\n

In addition, the Veterans Benefit Administration \u201cwill continue various benefit functions, such as education benefit claims processing and payments . . . as necessarily implied to prevent significant disruption to mandatory benefits programs.\u201d However, certain research, call center, administrative and other functions would be suspended.<\/p>\n

DoD\u2019s plan<\/a> \u2013 see note \u2013 meanwhile says that of its 741,000 civilian employees, some 183,000 are paid \u201cby a resource other than annual appropriations\u201d such as multi-year funding, trust funds and reimbursable work arrangements, and another 224,000 would be excepted from furlough as needed to protect life and property\u2014about 55 percent. (Note: A recent executive order gives the department the \u201csecondary\u201d title of Department of War to better emphasize \u201creadiness and resolve,\u201d while legislation has been introduced<\/a> in Congress \u2013 which continues to use \u201cDefense\u201d in legislation, to formalize the name change.)<\/p>\n

\u201cPositions that provide direct support to excepted positions may also be deemed excepted if they are critical to performing the excepted activity,\u201d on a case-by-case basis using standards in the document, it says.<\/p>\n

Both also note that under general policy, even furloughed employees would be expected to report for work for shutdown activities at first, with the VA projecting such activities to last three days but DoD projecting only a half-day.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the IRS\u00a0plan<\/a> points out that the Inflation Reduction Act\u2014a Biden administration initiative\u2014\u201dprovided supplemental appropriations available through September 30, 2031, for all IRS appropriations accounts. With this funding the IRS will not experience a lapse in appropriations on October 1, 2025, and normal IRS operations will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

It says that its 74,300 employees would be \u201cdesignated as \u2018exempt\u2019 and would be retained in the case of a lapse shutdown.\u201d That figure accounts for employees who accepted deferred resignation offers\u2014some of whom have been offered reinstatement. A footnote adds that the plan covers only the first five business days of a shutdown but does not indicate that the agency would have to stop using the advance funding after that point.<\/p>\n

Other agencies whose plans are on their sites include\u00a0HHS<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0OPM<\/a>. However, the\u00a0former dates to 2024 and the latter to 2023.<\/p>\n

OPM Advises Agencies on Conducting RIFs During Shutdown<\/a><\/p>\n

Updated Shutdown Contingency Plans Show Range of Impacts<\/a><\/p>\n

Use Shutdown as Justification for More RIFs, OMB Tells Agencies<\/a><\/p>\n

Unions Win a Round in Court Disputes over Anti-Representation Orders<\/a><\/p>\n

Deferred Resignation Periods End for Many; Overall 12% Drop<\/a><\/p>\n

Senate Bill Would Override Trump Orders against Unions<\/a><\/p>\n

See also,<\/p>\n

How to Handle Taxes Owed on TSP Roth Conversions? Use a Ladder<\/a><\/p>\n

The Best Ages for Federal Employees to Retire<\/a><\/p>\n

Best States to Retire for Federal Retirees: 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Pre-RIF To-Do List from a Federal Employment Attorney<\/a><\/p>\n

Primer: Early out, buyout, reduction in force (RIF)<\/a><\/p>\n

2025 Federal Employees Handbook<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pentagon’s plan says that of its 741,000 civilian employees, some 183,000 are paid \u201cby a resource other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-195121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}