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Shutdown Resources for Federal Employees

 

September 27, 2025

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has put the House of Representatives into recess until October 1, which is the first day of the 2026 fiscal year (FY26). Unless he brings the House of Representatives back from recess before September 30 and agrees to negotiate a bipartisan continuing resolution (CR) to provide short-term funding, the federal government will shut down on October 1. 

 

Until House Republican leadership agrees to work with Democrats on a bipartisan CR to provide short-term funding for the government, IFPTE is advising all IFPTE-represented federal employees to prepare for a likely government shutdown to begin at 12:01 am Wednesday, October 1, 2025.  This shutdown is the result of a lapse in funding, caused by Congress’s inability to pass legislation to keep the government funded in time for the start of the new fiscal year. 

If there is a shutdown, here’s what it means for federal employees: 

  • Unless otherwise directed, federal employees will report to work as scheduled. Employees may be assigned work necessary to conduct an orderly shutdown of their agency. Employees will also be informed if they are furloughed (assigned a leave of absence from work), or if they are “excepted” from furlough and therefore ordered to report to work during the shutdown. 

  • Both furloughed and excepted federal employees will not be paid during the shutdown. Federal employees will be paid as soon as possible once government funding is restored and the shutdown ends, per the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 (GEFTA).  

  • While federal agencies cannot incur expenses without prior approval of funding (or “appropriations”) from Congress, the federal government does have a legal right to maintain emergency operations to meet its obligations to the safety of life and the protection of property. To meet those obligations, agencies will designate some federal employees as “excepted” from furlough.  

  • Each agency should have a “contingency plan” or will issue an updated plan that indicates which federal employees are expected to be furloughed during the length of the shutdown, with the remainder reporting to work. Normally, these agency contingency plans are listed on the White House Office of Management and Budget  (OMB) website – but OMB is directing federal workers to find these plans on their agency’s websites.  

  • Employees who are furloughed at the start of the shutdown may be recalled to work under excepted status at any point during the shutdown. Conversely, excepted employees may be moved to furlough status during the shutdown if an agency deems it appropriate.  

  • Employees whose activities are funded by non-appropriated funds – i.e., mandatory spending, activities funded by user fees, or operations paid through trust funds – may be “exempt” from the furlough and work through the lapse in appropriations.  

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Agency Contingency Plans – In normal years, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has maintained the latest federal agency contingency plans listed.  

However, the current OMB page for agency contingency plans (https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-for-agencies/agency-contingency-plans/) directs visitors to find the agency contingency plan on the agency websites. We will update and link to the contingency plans on agency websites where IFPTE members work once agencies post those plans on their sites. 

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Analysis from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Understanding the Legal Framework Governing a Shutdown, by Sam Berger, former Associate Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs-OMB and former senior policy advisor at OMB 

This analysis includes information on the legal limits of the Executive Branch’s authority under a government shutdown caused by a lapse in government funding.  Topics include: 

Activities That Can Continue During a Government Shutdown 

  • Activities expressly provided for in law to continue during a shutdown. 

  • Activities to protect against imminent threats to life or property. 

  • Activities that are necessary to prevent significant damage to a funded program. 

  • Activities necessary to discharge the President’s constitutional duties. 

Executive Branch Restrictions During a Government Shutdown 

  • If an activity is not funded, no actual payments can be made during a shutdown. 

  • Each branch of government determines which of its activities can legally continue during a shutdown. 

  • Each branch of government determines which of its activities can legally continue during a shutdown. 

  • A shutdown would not impact the Administration’s legal obligations to spend money once full-year appropriations are provided. 

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OPM Guidance for Shutdown Furloughs – Last Updated January 29, 2024 – This is the federal government’s guidance for federal agencies and employees and includes answers to frequently asked questions. This document includes the statutory requirements of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 (GEFTA), which, among other provisions, requires all federal employees to be paid after a shutdown ends and government funding is restored. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/furlough-guidance/guidance-for-shutdown-furloughs.pdf  

Some pertinent information addressed in this guidance includes: 

  • General guidelines for excepted employees (Section A, starting on page 1) 

  • How excepted employees with previously approved leave can maintain their requested time off (Section F, starting on page 10). 

  • Employees taking second jobs during the shutdown and ethics considerations (Section C, question 3, on page 4) 

  • Access to federal employee benefits and impacts to benefits (Section H, starting on page 21) 

  • Impact on retirement (Section L, starting on page 27) 

  • Agencies’ obligation to bargain with unions (Section Q, question 2, on page 37) 

  • Sample of an agency notice of furlough due to the lapse in appropriations (page 40) 

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OMB Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations – Dated September 22, 2023 – This document, released by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) lists various principles of agency operations during a government shutdown. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Agency-Lapse-FAQs-9.2023.pdf 

 The following topics are covered in this 17-page document:  

  • Basic Principles of Agency Operations during a Lapse in Appropriations 

  • Contracts and Grants 

  • Information Technology 

  • Orderly Shutdown 

  • Travel 

  • Entitlement to Payment for Excepted Work 

  • Carryover Funds 

  • Use of Charge Cards  

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Federal Household Shutdown Checklist 

Furloughed Employees Can File for Unemployment Insurance: 

  • Federal employees who are furloughed and not reporting to work during the shutdown are eligible for state unemployment insurance (UI). Once the shutdown ends, UI benefits will be considered “overpayment” and will have to be paid back.  

 
Check Your Finances: 

  • Call your landlord, bank, credit union, mortgage lender, or other loan provider to let them know you are a furloughed federal worker and ask if you can delay payments until the government is funded again. 

  • Your credit union or bank may offer a short-term, low-interest loan for federal employees.  

  • Log onto your credit card and bank accounts to check for recurring expenses, such as online subscription services or memberships, and put them on pause. 

  • Check your local government to see if they are offering free services, such as memberships to recreation facilities, to federal workers and their families. 

  
Mind Your Wellness: 

  • Call 211 or log onto 211.org for mental health and other services that you and your loved ones may need during the shutdown. 

  • Make a list of places you’ve been meaning to visit or friends you’ve been meaning to see, and schedule at least one activity a day. 

  • Keep in touch with your co-workers and make sure you have contact information for your steward or local union leaders.

Sign Up Here to Receive Shutdown Messages

If the shutdown occurs, IFPTE will keep members updated through our messaging tool, Action Network.

Members are highly encouraged to send IFPTE their personal email address to receive updated messages, alerts, and any other pertinent shutdown information. This is also necessary if you are currently receiving IFPTE messages and alerts through your work email address.

Members can sign up here.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

TELL CONGRESS TO GET TO WORK  AND PASS BIPARTISAN GOVERNMENT FUNDING  

Tell Congress to pass a bipartisan Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government and prevent a shutdown. A government funding bill that is agreed by Republican and Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate is the only way to make sure there are enough votes in the House of Representatives to advance the bill, pass it in the Senate, and stop the shutdown: 

 

  • Call House Speaker Mike Johnson at 202-225-4000 and put forward a continuing resolution that has the bipartisan support of Congressional leadership. 

  • Write a letter-to-the-editor to a newspaper or local online outlet such as patch.com and share your story with the public. 

Congress Needs Language in Funding Bills to Protect Government Funding from Unlawful Overreach

IFPTE is requesting Congress negotiate and pass government funding that includes legislative language protecting congressionally approved funding levels from being withheld by the Administration and preventing a unilateral implementation of the President’s budget contrary to Congressional intent.  

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) have introduced a Democratic continuing resolution (CR), H.R. 5450 and S. 2882, that includes provisions to make clear that the President cannot lawfully implement his budget and ignore Congress, as well as provisions to block any mass terminations or furloughs during the term of the CR. The CR also protects federal science research efforts from unilateral cancellations during the CR, including protections for NASA Science missions, NOAA activities, National Science Foundation work and grants, and medical research. A fact sheet on the Democratic funding bill is available here, and a section-by-section summary of the bill is available here.. 

For more information and analysis on why Congressional short-term and full-year funding needs these provisions to block unlawful Executive Branch overreach, read the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, New Proposal Shows Congress Can Enact Guardrails to Ensure a Deal Is a Deal for 2026 Funding.   

From the very first days of the second Trump Administration to the present day, the Administration has repeatedly overstepped Congress’s authority and role by illegally withholding federal funds for specific agency operations and missions, delaying and in some instances canceling federal grants that have already been committed, and claiming to exploit loopholes in the law that do not exist to deny allocating federal dollars.  

These actions not only violate Congress’s constitutional power to appropriate or direct funds from the Treasury to the federal government (under Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, the Appropriations Clause) and the power to raise and direct federal funds to “provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States” (under Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution, the Spending Clause), they also undermine the whole purpose of Congressional appropriations. If the President has invented for himself the powers to unilaterally veto any part of federal spending that Congress has authorized under Congress’s Constitutionally defined role, what is the point of Congress appropriating funding that can simply be rejected at the whim of the President? 

The Administration has already used unprecedented tactics such as "pocket rescissions" to withhold funds until they expire, effectively nullifying bipartisan funding agreements. Elsewhere, the Administration is directing agencies to plan to implement funding cuts in the President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2026, not what Congress has appropriated or will appropriate for FY26. The threat of unlawfully imposing budget cuts that Congress has not yet approved has also been part of the effort to bully federal workers to leave the civil service through the deferred resignation program and voluntary early separation and retirement incentives. These unlawful decisions by the Administration have not only caused chaos at agencies and the abrupt loss of expertise across the federal workforce, but have also wasted enormous federal resources and strained the federal services and functions that Americans, businesses, and our economy rely on.  

Without enforceable legislative safeguards, any 2026 funding deal risks being ignored or overturned, increasing the likelihood of a government shutdown.  

Timeline of Events Leading to Shutdown: 

  • Monday, September 15: President Trump tells Congressional Republicans, “don’t even bother dealing with them,” meaning Republicans should not negotiate with Democrats to craft a bipartisan CR (see Politico, “‘Don't even bother dealing with them,’ Trump says of Democrats’ shutdown demands,” 15 Sept 2025). 

  • While the House can pass a CR with a simple majority of Republicans, the Senate cannot pass a CR with just 53 Republicans and needs Democrats to get to 60 votes to advance the bill to the Senate floor.  

  • Tuesday, September 16: Republican leadership in the House of Representatives introduces H.R. 5371, “the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2026,” on the House floor for a vote (Govexec, House GOP unveils 7-week stopgap funding bill, Dems say it makes shutdown more likely). 

  • This CR funds the federal government until November 21, 2025. 

  • House and Senate Republicans did not negotiate with their Democratic counterparts on the CR, despite repeated calls from Democratic leadership for a bipartisan CR. 

  • Wednesday, September 17: The Democrats’ short-term funding bill, H.R. 5450 and S .2882, "Continuing Appropriations and Extensions and Other Matters Act, 2026,” is introduced. The legislation, sponsored by House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray, includes the following provisions that IFPTE has asked for and supports (House Appropriations Dems, “DeLauro, Murray Introduce Bill to Prevent a Republican Shutdown”). The bill includes: 

  • Language to limit the President and the Office of Management and Budget’s ability to implement unilateral budget cuts by implementing the President’s Budget Request.  

  • Language to prohibit mass terminations or furloughs while the government is funded under the CR. 

  • Provisions to protect NASA Science missions and NOAA funding and activities, as well as protections and restoration of other federal scientific research spending.  

  • Several provisions related to extending enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits, which are set to expire on December 31, and reverse massive cuts to Medicaid that were included in the Republican budget reconciliation bill enacted in July 2025.  

  • Friday, September 19: House Republicans refuse to negotiate a bipartisan CR, H.R. 5371, and instead pass their CR in the morning on an almost completely party-line vote. The Republican CR is sent to the Senate and fail to receive the bipartisan support need to clear the 60 votes to proceed to a floor vote in the Senate. The Senate version of the Democratic CR also failed to receive 60 votes to proceed to a floor, making clear that negotiation is needed to reach a bipartisan CR. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson extends the Rosh Hashanah recess into Sept. 29 and 30, leaving the House with no time to work on a bipartisan CR in order to pressure Senate Democrats to accept their bill (CBS News, House-passed GOP funding bill fails in Senate, leaving path to avoid shutdown unclear). 

  • Saturday, September 20:  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) request a meeting with President Trump after efforts to engage with their Republican leadership counterparts, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, are met with silence (NPR, Top Democrats ask for a meeting with Trump ahead of government shutdown).  

  • Tuesday, September 23: Soon after President Trump announced that he would meet with Senate Minority Leader Schumer and House Minority Leader Jeffries to discuss a path to avoiding a shutdown and negotiating a bipartisan short-term funding bill, the President canceled the meeting. The meeting with the President and Congressional Democratic leadership was a critical step to avoiding a shutdown because House Speaker Mike Johnson is taking directions from the President. (Axios, Trump cancels meeting with top Democrats as shutdown looms) 

  • Wednesday, September 24: Russel Vought, Director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and one of the lead architects of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, issued a memo telling “agencies are directed to use this opportunity to consider Reduction-in-Force (RIF) notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities (PPAs) that satisfy all three of the following conditions: (1) discretionary funding lapses on October 1, 2025; (2) another source of funding, such as H.R. 1 (Public Law 119-21) is not currently available; and (3) the PPA is not consistent with the President’s priorities.” This threat to wreck the federal government during a shutdown has been widely condemned by IFPTE and other labor unions, by lawmakers, and by good governance organizations, While RIFs in the federal government are governed by rules and processes that takes 30 to 60 days to initiate, the threat reveals the need for Congressional legislation to affirm that the President, OMB, and federal agencies must not overstep Congress’s authority and intent (GovExec, Agencies should prep for mass layoffs if shutdown occurs, White House says).