The federal government has started the process of preparing for a potential shutdown while congressional leaders continue to negotiate a spending agreement. It has taken part in the obligatory but customary procedure of providing agencies with shutdown instructions before this Friday’s funding deadline.
Although officials have emphasised that a government shutdown is not likely, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree that they will need to pass a week-long stopgap measure to give themselves more time for negotiations. The standard procedure outlining the steps toward ceasing non-essential government operations is already in motion.
According to a budget circular from the Office of Management and Budget, “OMB will communicate with agency senior officials one week prior to the expiration of appropriations bills, regardless of whether the enactment of appropriations appears imminent, to remind agencies of their responsibilities to review and update orderly shutdown plans, and will share a draught communication template to notify employees of the status of appropriations.”
Last Friday, seven days before a shutdown could start in the absence of congressional action, that routine advice was made available.
Every division and organisation has its own set of policies and practises. These plans detail how many workers would be furloughed, which workers would perform essential tasks without pay (such as air traffic controllers, Secret Service agents, and laboratory staff at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), how long it would take to wind down operations in the days leading up to a shutdown, and which operations would cease.
The government has threatened to shut down on numerous times, so this is not the first time it has done so. A record-breaking 35-day government shutdown occurred recently between December 2018 and January 2019 due to a deadlock in Congress over financing for then-President Donald Trump’s border wall. During the Trump administration’s January 2018 partial government shutdown due to impasse, three additional days were lost. And in 2013, a disagreement over the Affordable Care Act and other financial issues led to a 16-day partial government shutdown, which was presided over by then-President Barack Obama.
