Shutdown Impact Explorer

A shutdown can start at the beginning of a fiscal year if no money has been appropriated for that year, or when a continuing resolution (a temporary funding law) expires and no new continuing resolution or appropriations law has passed. OPM

In a shutdown, an affected agency has to stop the activities paid for by annual appropriations that the law doesn’t except, often with little or no lead time. OPM

Pick who you are or what you want to know to see the rules that apply, each linked to the law or agency plan it comes from. This page explains the rules. It doesn’t track whether the government is shut down now.

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Shutdown Impact Explorer

Pick who you are or what you want to know to see what federal law and agency plans say happens during a lapse in funding: who keeps working, back pay, benefits and services. The tool explains the rules, not whether the government is shut down now.

Question 1

What do you want to know about a federal government shutdown?

How to answer this

This covers a lapse in federal funding. For a state government shutdown, check that state’s rules.

Federal employees asking about their own job or pay, including TSA employees and civilian employees of the military: pick the federal employee answer.

Retired federal employees and annuitants: pick the benefits answer.

Coast Guard members on active duty, and National Guard and reserve members: pick the military answer. Its result says where to check.

Whenever a lapse looks possible, agencies are to review their shutdown plans and post any revised plan on their websites, so a plan in effect for one lapse may change before the next. OMB

Agency plans are cited with their dates. Pick an answer above to see the rules and plans that apply.

How a Shutdown Starts

  • The federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30 of the following year. U.S. Code
  • A shutdown can start at the beginning of a fiscal year if no money has been appropriated for that year, or when a continuing resolution (a temporary funding law) expires and no new continuing resolution or appropriations law has passed. OPM
  • A shutdown furlough happens when money isn’t available through an appropriations law or a continuing resolution, and an agency has to stop the work the Antideficiency Act doesn’t allow to continue. OPM
  • In a shutdown, an affected agency has to stop the activities paid for by annual appropriations that the law doesn’t except, often with little or no lead time. OPM
  • The Antideficiency Act bars federal officers and employees from spending or obligating more than an appropriation provides, and from committing the government to pay money before an appropriation is made unless a law authorizes it. U.S. Code
  • The law also bars accepting voluntary services for the government, except for emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property. U.S. Code
  • Those emergencies don’t include ongoing, regular government work whose suspension wouldn’t imminently threaten the safety of human life or the protection of property. U.S. Code

What Keeps Running

An agency may still commit funds to certain excepted functions without an appropriation, including when: OMB

  • A statute or court order expressly authorizes or requires the work to go on without an appropriation. OMB
  • Other work that lawfully continues depends on it: stopping it would prevent or significantly damage that work. OMB
  • Stopping it would imminently threaten the safety of human life or the protection of property. OMB
  • It’s necessary to carry out the President’s constitutional duties and powers. OMB

After OMB says a lapse has occurred, it directs agencies to begin orderly shutdown activities, and every action must contribute to an orderly shutdown of the agency. OMB

Work paid for with appropriations that haven’t lapsed can continue and is “exempt” from shutdown procedures. That includes employees paid from carryover funds or an appropriation provided by permanent law. OMB

The work needed to send benefit payments under entitlement programs funded by an indefinite appropriation, such as Social Security, is an excepted activity. OMB

Agency heads, with their general counsels, decide which of their agency’s activities are excepted or otherwise legally allowed to continue. OMB

Excepted, Exempt or Furloughed

  • Excepted employees are paid from annual appropriations but aren’t furloughed, because the law allows their tasks to continue during a lapse, such as emergency work to protect human life or property. OPM
  • Exempt employees aren’t affected by the lapse, including those whose work isn’t paid for with annual appropriations. Normal pay, leave and other civil service rules generally continue for them. OPM
  • Employees paid from annual appropriations whose work isn’t designated excepted are barred from working during a shutdown, apart from minimal shutdown tasks, and are furloughed. OPM
  • Agency lawyers, working with senior managers, decide which employees handle excepted work, and each agency decides how and when to tell employees. OPM
  • A furloughed employee can’t use paid time off, even leave approved before the lapse. OPM
  • An excepted employee required to work may use paid leave during the lapse, with pay for that leave coming after the lapse ends. U.S. Code
  • Furloughed employees may be eligible for unemployment compensation because they have lost both hours and wages. OPM
  • Excepted employees working full time aren’t considered unemployed and aren’t eligible; intermittent excepted workers may be eligible for weeks they don’t work full time. DOL

Back Pay: What the Law and the Guidance Say

  • 31 U.S.C. 1341(c)(2), as in effect Sept. 24, 2026: “Each employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates, and subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.” U.S. Code
  • A “covered lapse” is one that begins on or after Dec. 22, 2018. Congress added the provision on Jan. 16, 2019 (Public Law 116-1) and added the words “and subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse” on Jan. 25, 2019 (Public Law 116-5). U.S. Code
  • OPM’s Guidance for Shutdown Furloughs (January 2026), question D.3: “Congress will determine via legislation whether furloughed employees receive pay for furlough periods.” OPM
  • OMB’s Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations (last updated Jan. 30, 2026), answer 27: “Consistent with the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 (Public Law 116-1), furloughed employees will receive payment for the period of the appropriations lapse when specific appropriations for such payments are enacted.” OMB

Military Members and Contractors

  • Members of a uniformed service on active duty are entitled by law to the basic pay of their pay grade. U.S. Code
  • DHS’s lapse procedures, dated Sept. 29, 2025, say active-duty members, almost all of them Coast Guard members at DHS, are excepted because that law entitles them to pay, and they may perform normal duties during a lapse. DHS
  • The same procedures say that, consistent with Title 37, Coast Guard payroll liability accrues monthly, so the pay of Coast Guard members depends on the timing of the lapse. DHS

Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force members: check the Defense Department’s lapse guidance and DFAS at dfas.mil.

  • The 2019 back-pay provision covers employees of the U.S. government and of D.C. public employers (the D.C. courts, the D.C. Public Defender Service and the D.C. government). U.S. Code
  • A contractor can keep working during a lapse if federal supervision isn’t critical, for example when the agency obligated the full price of the contract or task order before the lapse. OMB
  • If federal supervision is critical to the work, the agency should tell the contractor to suspend performance, where the law and the contract allow. OMB
  • An agency that orders excepted contract work during a lapse can’t pay the contractor until an appropriation is enacted. OMB

Benefits and Services, Agency by Agency

What agency plans and statements say, each with its date
ServiceWhat the agency’s plan or statement says
Social SecurityThe Social Security Administration’s contingency plan, dated Sept. 24, 2025, says funding for benefits under Titles II, XVI and XVIII of the Social Security Act continues during a lapse. SSA
SSISSA’s Sept. 24, 2025, plan says general revenues fund SSI (Title XVI) payments, and the current appropriation funds them through the first quarter of the following fiscal year. Because there is funding to pay these benefits, SSA continues the work needed to pay them accurately and on time. SSA
VA health careVA’s September 2025 plan says veteran medical care and critical services in the Veterans Health Administration, including the Veterans Crisis Line, continue because advance appropriations pay for them. VA
VA benefit paymentsVA’s contingency plan, dated September 2025, says compensation and pension claims processing and payments, education benefit claims and payments, and other benefit work continue during a lapse. VA
Federal civilian retirement annuitiesOPM’s January 2026 guidance says federal retirees under the CSRS and FERS retirement systems still receive their scheduled annuity payments on the first business day of the month during a shutdown. OPM
PassportsThe State Department’s lapse guidance, as of Jan. 30, 2026, says consular operations, including passports, remain operational as long as there are enough fees to support them. State Dept.
National parksThe National Park Service’s contingency plan, dated September 2025, says park roads, lookouts, trails and open-air memorials generally remain accessible. Parks without accessible areas don’t operate: no permits, programs, trash collection, restrooms or visitor information. National Park Service
MailIn a Sept. 25, 2025, statement, the Postal Service said its operations would not be interrupted by a shutdown and all post offices would stay open, because it is generally funded by selling its products and services, not by tax dollars. USPS
Airport securityDHS’s lapse procedures, dated Sept. 29, 2025, estimated that 61,197 of TSA’s 64,130 employees would be exempt or excepted and keep working during a lapse. DHS
IRS (services depend on IRS funding in each lapse)In an Oct. 21, 2025, statement during a lapse, the IRS said the tax law remains in effect and taxpayers must file and pay as normal, with all tax deadlines in effect. For that lapse, the IRS said refunds would generally not be paid, except on error-free, electronically filed Form 1040 returns with direct deposit, and that processing of paper returns would be delayed. The IRS said walk-in Taxpayer Assistance Centers would be closed and live phone help would be limited. The IRS’s contingency plan, dated Jan. 22, 2026, for a lapse starting Jan. 31, 2026, said multiyear money from the Inflation Reduction Act, available through Sept. 30, 2031, meant normal IRS operations would continue. IRSIRS
SNAP and WICCheck USDA’s lapse plans at usda.gov/shutdownplans and your state’s SNAP or WIC office.

Whenever a lapse looks possible, agencies are to review their shutdown plans and post any revised plan on their websites, so a plan in effect for one lapse may change before the next. OMB

How a Shutdown Ends

  • 31 U.S.C. 1341(c)(2) ties back pay to “the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.” U.S. Code
  • When the lapse ends, OMB notifies agencies so they can resume operations under their plans. OMB
  • Agencies tell furloughed employees the furlough has ended and the day to return, normally their next scheduled workday. OMB
  • Excepted employees are paid for work during a lapse after Congress passes, and the President signs, a new appropriation or continuing resolution. OPM

Penalties Under the Antideficiency Act

  • An official who violates the Antideficiency Act’s spending or voluntary-service limits is subject to discipline, which can include suspension without pay or removal from office. U.S. Code
  • An official who knowingly and willfully violates those limits can be fined up to $5,000, imprisoned up to two years, or both. U.S. Code

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