Featured November 13, 2023 A government shutdown would threaten air travel and safety Back to Blog Navigating the government shutdown: Essential information you need to know Date October 3, 2025 Authors Ross Apter Tags Congress, Government Effectiveness While the federal government has shut down many times in the past and furloughed federal employees, this time is unique. Previously, agencies have tried to minimize service disruptions and have brought back employees after a shutdown has ended, but the Trump administration this time has said it plans to use the current crisis to fire additional civil servants. This latest threat comes as the Trump administration has already reduced the federal workforce by more than 200,000 employees. Due to the chaos of the current political landscape, there are many open questions about the impact and policy implications of the current shutdown. The Partnership for Public Service is closely monitoring political events and policy guidance, and updating our shutdown resources so lawmakers, federal workers and the public have everything they need to know. Here is some information to help navigate the shutdown. How are federal employees categorized during this shutdown? Federal employees are categorized by their agencies as either “furloughed,” “excepted” or “exempt” using terminology recently provided by the Office of Personnel Management. Here’s how it works: Generally, employees whose positions are funded by annual appropriations are considered “furloughed” and placed in a temporary nonduty, non-pay status during a lapse in annual appropriations. Employees who are placed in “excepted” status by their agencies continue working (without pay) during a shutdown. Determinations on which employees and programs can be excepted typically fall into one of four categories outlined in Office of Management and Budget memo A-11, although agencies have broad discretion to choose who is in each category. There are also “exempt” employees who continue to work because their programs are funded through mechanisms other than annual appropriations. While these distinctions are often reduced by many as “essential” or “non-essential” employees, this terminology is inaccurate and should be avoided to reduce public misconception that federal employees aren’t necessary to deliver the services that Americans rely on. Federal employees who are furloughed perform mission-critical functions, and important public services provided by federal agencies are severely reduced when these employees are furloughed, harming families and businesses. Will federal employees and military personnel get paid? For federal employees living paycheck to paycheck, even one missed payment can be harmful. Federal employees and military personnel whose positions are funded by annual appropriations, even those who must continue to work, will not be paid until the government reopens. For furloughed employees, legislation approved in 2019 guarantees these employees back pay when the government reopens. Congress passed legislation to pay military personnel during past shutdowns but has not done so this time. To ensure the military gets paid, which typically occurs on the 1st and 15th of each month, lawmakers will need to pass new legislation. What about workers participating in the Deferred Resignation Program? Although many federal employees who took the Deferred Resignation Program ended their tenure on Sept. 30, many others remain technically employed and are on administrative leave. Employees currently on administrative leave are now furloughed. As with all other employees, they will not receive pay until the government reopens. Lump-sum, annual leave and severance payments may be delayed or paused. Those who participated in the DRP with an end date of Sept. 30, 2025, have not been placed on furlough since they are no longer considered federal employees. Their administrative leave payments have ended, although there is uncertainty about how they will receive final paperwork, have their early retirement processed and how other personnel actions, such as payouts for annual leave payments, will be handled. How will this shutdown impact communities across the country? Shutdowns are not just about government funding or federal employees being furloughed, and they do not impact just the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Of the over 2 million federal employees in the government, 80% live and work outside of the Washington, D. C. metropolitan area – in congressional districts across the country. While the harm to federal employees, their families and their communities can be enormous, shutdowns impact critical public services. Shutdowns can slow medical advances, halting the start of new clinical trials and preventing new patients from enrolling; pause the collection and posting of agricultural data that farmers rely on; force delays for seniors trying to gain access to customer support at agencies like Social Security Administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and so much more. All of these impacts come on the heels of ongoing service delivery harms caused by the arbitrary and haphazard cuts to federal workforce and programs enacted by the administration during the past eight months. What is the economic impact of a government shutdown? Not only are shutdowns bad for the public, they cost money. The Congressional Research Service estimated that the partial shutdown in 2018-2019 resulted in a $3 billion loss to the real gross domestic product. In addition, consumer spending went down, impacting private sector businesses and profits. How do reductions in force work during a shutdown? Undertaking a reduction in force or RIF during a government shutdown is unprecedented. The firing of employees typically occurs when Congress has canceled a program or decreased funding. The procedures an agency must follow in conducting RIFs are specific, complex and can take several months to a year to fully execute. Additionally, the criteria for determining which employees are subject to a RIF is different than the criteria used to determine which employees are furloughed or excepted during a shutdown. For RIFs, this includes tenure, veterans’ status and performance ratings. The Trump administration’s RIF guidance to agencies, which includes directives to consider “all components and employees performing functions not mandated by statute or other law who are not typically designated as essential during a lapse in appropriations as provided in the Agency Contingency Plans on the Office of Management and Budget website,” is just as unprecedented as executing a RIF during a shutdown and raises significant legal questions which could eventually result in additional costs to federal agencies. Visit our webpage to access our government shutdown resources. Ross Apter is part of the Partnership’s government affairs team, managing legislative initiatives centered on streamlining federal hiring, modernizing federal leadership requirements and improving agency use of customer experience data.
