shutdown 101

what you lose in these fandangles

How do government bosses prepare for a potential shutdown? Have you ever thought about that or wondered what it means? Let me pull the curtain back for you as i have experiences dating to the Clinton administration.

Let’s review the process. The Executive Branch conducts the your business—this is the people’s business rather than some autonomous entity with a mind of its own—which the Legislative Branch authorises. The Congress sets forth Executive spending by the budget that same elected Congress pays for with taxes it levies. The fiscal year runs officially from 1 October 202A through 30 September 202B. Congress consists of the Senate and the House, each mandated by the Constitution to play a role. The President must sign whatever reconciled product these two legislative bodies pass. If someone has constitutional questions about legality of actions, the third branch, the judiciary, becomes involved as well.

The full budget, which is almost never successfully in place by 30 September, is what the law calls for. A Continuing Resolution, a CR in Beltway talk, is Congress’ frequently used bandaid to approve continue spending at the existing (prior Fiscal Year’s) levels until we finish the full budget for the upcoming Fiscal Year. CRs are quite common, often dragging into the next calendar year as well as the fiscal year.

Like the debt ceiling challenge last spring, the government cannot operate legally without money. Period. Something must justify any single centavo our Executive spends on our behalf must be authorised, approved, and signed off on. That is the checks and balances at work. I guarantee the judicial branch would become involved when should illegal spending occur. As I mentioned last spring, I knew someone fired when in 2013 when he deemed his official travel valid despite a government shutdown that year. Within days of making this trip, someone turned him into the Inspector General resulting in his firing immediately without any hesitation.

So, if these are real, serious actions, what does preparing the workforce entail as is going to start in full swing this week? Well, turns out we spend lots of your taxpayers’ funding preparing for a shutdown, whether it occurs or not. I worked at a micro agency but these were the steps we took, whether I was in leadership or being led by others.

Agency leadership have shutdown plans developed, sadly, over the past thirty years. Some agencies have tasks the Office of Management and Budget, in conjunction with the White House, deem essential. That designation means the employees will work through a shutdown, even though there is not indication when they will receive back pay. These agencies generally include air traffic controllers, federal law enforcement and the military.

The hard part is when you’re in a blended agency with many essential military officers and civilians of several flavours. In 2019, when Department of Homeland Security and State Department students were not allowed to attend seminars after other non-essential personnel returned (their agencies were still seen as not essential), these students were perilously close to expulsion for missing coursework. They were missing the coursework not because they chose to but because their agencies could not justify them being at work. Talk about Joseph Heller’s Catch 22. I had to explain to the then deputy provost that we could not disenroll them in February when this occurred, then invite them back in the fall as the agencies run competitions for applications well over a year in advance so these students would lose their opportunities altogether. Mercifully, the shutdown ended within about 48 hours of this conversation.

Essential task lists do not, repeat not, include those who process Social Security payments since there is not funding for Social Security. Nor does it include Medicare for the elderly, veterans’ services for those who defended us in wars, those who assure the working of SNAP programs for families or funding for transportation development across the country. In the intelligence community, some workers are designated essential while others not, depending on their areas (doing much to undermine overall morale, of course). The bulk of Department of State is almost always seen as non-essential. And on and on.

Within an individual office, a roster of essential workers in case of an emergency exist but most do not fit that category. As the impending shutdown date looms, employees receive the word on their status as non-essential or essential. That status changes from shutdown to shutdown which is even more upsetting to the function of the agency, though military personnel almost invariably are deemed essential to defending the nation.

As an academic institution, in the infamous 1995 shutdown, we continued classes for the uniformed student budy by asking our uniformed faculty to teach all of the classes regardless of whether they had any expertise in the subject. Our approach at National War College is called faculty seminar leading so that wasn’t as peculiar as it sounds but it was fairly ineffective.

The two sides on the budget tend to puff up their chests in the final days before the drop dead date as it is a political struggle or nerves. Ultimately, leadership in the organisation must counsel the employees and staff. A formal counseling session alerts the employee that she or he cannot do any government work, repeat no government work during the shutdown. Did you know that under law we do not have volunteering activities to do federal work? This is the ase so an employee cannot undertake obligation for you and me the taxpayer that has not been authorised, obligated, and signed into law. This is checks and balances at work again to prohibit things, such as individual initiatives, flying around ‘on our behalf’ because we have a single federal government. The employees cannot access their offices, cannot use their government computers, nor use their government phones. Since all of these are digitally recording, this is simply to check. If the employee participates in some outside activity like a conference or meeting, she cannot identify as federal employees or state she is operating on the taxpayers’ behalf. She can only appear in a personal capacity. The employees also receive an advisory they must be ready to return to work when contacted by their supervisor but no one knows when that might be.

Employees also are advised they have no guarantee they will receive back pay. All prior shutdowns have resulted in backpay but these are different days and there are no guarantees—period.

Each employees signs a statement of understanding reflecting this counseling and state of affairs. If someone is overseas, she or he must return to CONUS prior to the first day of the shutdown as no travel is authorised. All activities must terminate when funding terminates.

It is an exceptionally disruptive process but agencies follow it to the letter of the law. They have no choice.

It’s so easy to attack federal employees but the profound reality is they operate under the auspices of our system as its checks and balances and constitutional requirements state. That, my friends, is rule of law. As you know, I like rule of law but fully acknowledge our system is pretty screwed up some times.

These are my experiences. Please do send any comments on your own. I got some fascinating ones about rising water levels. I was at the Academy for a solemn event last night. I encountered a road diversion which I realised is evidence of the initial work on that sea wall reliciency program I discussed yesterday.

I appreciate each and every one of you taking time to read Actions Create Consequences. I am so grateful for those of you who subscribe with financial support.

Be well and be safe. FIN