Federal Workers, Law Enforcement Face Renewed Uncertainty as Shutdown Threat Lingers
On paper, it is business as usual for federal law enforcement this week. A government shutdown was avoided at the last minute, with House Republican leadership passing a continuing resolution (CR) with Democratic support, to keep the government funded for 45-days.
However, since then, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was removed from his Speaker position after a faction of conservatives were upset over the CR deal. These Republicans joined with all Democrats to oust the speaker.
With uncertainty surrounding leadership in the House of Representatives, the chances of a government shutdown when the 45-day funding expires on November 17 increase.
DHS Will be Hard Hit in Shutdown
If there were to be a shutdown, one of the agencies hit hardest will be the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where some 72 percent of the workforce is deemed essential.
DHS has been warning about the impacts on a shutdown for a while, noting that a shutdown would force workers to work without pay along the border, in the airports, and in law enforcement activities around the world. DHS says a shutdown would slow critical investigations and surveillance, delay the implementation of new technology at airports, and impact longer-term recruitment and retention.
“We know that the uncertainty of the last few days has put a tremendous strain on many of you, and on your families. We also recognize that this bill portends another such moment of difficulty in the weeks ahead. We are hopeful a budget deal will be reached and will continue to track Congressional movement to provide the funding the American people and you deserve to support our critical missions,” wrote Randolph D. Alles DHS Deputy Under Secretary for Management, after the passage of the CR.
Defense Department Warning
The Department of Defense (DOD) also warned about the potential impacts of a shutdown. DOD said that while it would “continue to defend and protect the United States and conduct on-going military operations” there would still be significant impacts.
The effects include members of the military going without pay, the closure of commissaries in the United States (they would remain open overseas), the postponement of elective surgeries in DOD mental and dental facilities, and the furlough of many DOD civilian employees.
"A shutdown would degrade and impact our operational planning and coordination, impact our more than 800,000 civilians, and severely diminish our ability to recruit and retain quality individuals for military service," DOD officials said.
In addition, officials warned that a shutdown would give strategic advantages to U.S. adversaries like China.
“A shutdown impacts our ability to outcompete the PRC [People's Republic of China] — it costs us time as well as money, and money can't buy back time, especially for lost training events,” said a DOD official.
It is hard to quantify exactly just how much is lost every time the government goes through the shutdown drill, but we do know that many federal executives spent weeks preparing for a shutdown and its potential consequences.
“Everything was looking at contracts and grants, and looking at who’s an excepted employee and who’s a non excepted employee — meeting, who’s going to be furloughed and who’s not going to be furloughed,” Federal News Network executive editor Jason Miller told WTOP.
Miller pointed out that shutdowns are “a huge time suck on the day-in-and-day-out work” that agencies could be using to advance their mission.
Executives also spent time stressing that just because an employee is furloughed, it does not mean their work is not valuable or important.
“It is merely a reflection of the legal requirements under which we must operate should a lapse in appropriations occur,” wrote Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks.
With all the uncertainty surrounding shutdowns, a study from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy looked at the morale of federal workers by reviewing data from the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS).
The study found the 2013 shutdown negatively impacted employee morale in FEVS scores, while the 2019 one did not.
One possible reason: the employees who were unhappy left. In a working paper yet to be published, USC researchers found that job separations increased substantially after government shutdowns.
“We need to pay attention to the effect that shutdowns have on the morale and the talent that we can retain in the civil service, because without that, we will have a civil service that is as dysfunctional as the electoral institutions,” said USC Price School Associate Professor William Resh.