Agencies are starting to tell the more than 700,000 federal employees who are furloughed during this now 31-day partial government shutdown that their time away will be extended another 30 days.
The departments of Commerce, Justice and Homeland Security, as well as NASA and the General Services Administration, at the very least, have sent out emails to employees detailing the extension.
“Because your services are no longer needed for orderly suspension of operations and you are not engaged in one of the excepted functions, you are being placed in a furlough status effective Oct. 31, 2025,” the Commerce Department wrote in its furlough notice. “This furlough, i.e., non-duty, non-pay status, is not expected to exceed 30 days. Therefore, this furlough notice expires on Nov. 29, 2025. When a continuing resolution or a fiscal 2026 appropriation for DoC is enacted, you will be expected to return to duty on your next regular scheduled workday.”
GSA said its furlough notices go through Nov 30.
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Commerce also said if the lapse in appropriations lasts longer than 30 days, it will give employees another furlough letter.
“It does not apply to employees who did not previously receive a furlough notice, including excepted employees,” the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency wrote in its email, which Federal News Network obtained. “Employees who have been recalled from furlough status may continue to work in accordance with any previously issued recall notice but will be placed in furlough status if the recall ends before funding is restored.”
Retroactive pay still a question
Agencies are required by law to send employees furlough notices at least 30 days before a lapse in appropriations, but given the current situation, that requirement was suspended.
Some agencies, such as the CISA and the Army, are requiring employees to sign or at least acknowledge the letter.
While the letters among several agencies are similar, there are some differences. NASAWatch, a blog site hosted by a former NASA employee, reported that the space agency’s letter raised the question of whether or not furloughed employees would receive retroactive pay once the shutdown ends.
“Please note that if you receive retroactive pay at the conclusion of the shutdown furlough, and you received Unemployment Compensation for the shutdown furlough, you will be required to repay the Unemployment Compensation funds,” NASAWatch reported.
A NASA spokesperson confirmed it sent out the notice and the retroactive pay is not guaranteed without an act of Congress.
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Other agencies, including the Interior Department and the Census Bureau, also sent similar messages to employees about retroactive pay in the new furlough notices, according to notices obtained by Federal News Network.
At the Office of the National Director of Intelligence, employees received more assurance in their latest furlough letter that they would be paid.
Other agencies, including Commerce, the Army and CISA, didn’t mention anything about retroactive pay.
The Office of Management and Budget raised the question of whether furloughed employees would receive retroactive pay shortly after the partial shutdown started.
A draft legal opinion from OMB argued that whatever funding legislation Congress ultimately passes to end the current shutdown must explicitly include appropriations to provide back pay for furloughed federal employees. And if it’s not expressly written in the spending legislation, the OMB memo argues that furloughed workers cannot receive any retroactive compensation.
Experts say OMB’s opinion appears to contradict its previous interpretation of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act (GEFTA), which President Donald Trump signed into law in 2019 during the last government shutdown.
Congress failed to pass a bill to pay feds
Senate lawmakers have tried to pass a bill to pay federal employees who currently are working during the shutdown. The Senate didn’t pass the bill, as Democrats voted against it because they said it didn’t include immediate financial relief for the roughly 700,000 federal employees who are currently furloughed without pay.
These second round of notices come as about 1.4 million federal employees missed a full paycheck this week, according to data analysis from the Bipartisan Policy Center. About half of those employees are furloughed, and the rest are working without pay.
Everett Kelley, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said at the union’s townhall last night that his recent call to end the shutdown wasn’t a partisan or political message.
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Everett Kelley is the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“What you saw was a call for dignity, a call for fairness and respect for the millions of patriotic federal employees who simply want to serve their country and get a paycheck for their work. Now that’s not a new position, and it shouldn’t be a controversial issue. AFGE has opposed every shutdown in our union’s history,” Kelley said. “We have never, and will never, support politicians using our livelihoods as a political football. Now, I know there isn’t a universal agreement on that position, and I hear that too. We all want to see a government that truly serves working people. We all want to see an end to the chaos that we’ve seen rave or so many ravage so many of our lives this year.”
Kelley said Senators from both parties began meeting to introduce legislation to guarantee that every federal employee furloughed and whose who are working will be paid immediately for the full length of this shutdown, and in any future shutdown.
“We see leaders from both parties coming together to try to take federal employees out of this dangerous game, not just for this time frame, but forever. And I applaud them for that,” he said. “No federal worker should ever be treated as expandable or used as leverage in a political fight. Yet, once again, we find ourselves in the crosshairs after months of reductions in force, agency closings, attacks on our most fundamental rights as a union and on our basic dignity as workers. We are now carrying the fight of a political fight in Washington that has left hundreds of thousands of us without pay, without certainty, and for too many, without a way to put food on the table, make the car note or keep a roof over our heads…”
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