After a series of temporary spending measures, major media outlets are reporting that the chance of a federal government shutdown is growing more likely at the end of the day Friday when the latest stop-gap ends.
Congress on Dec. 21 adopted its third budget continuing resolution to all federal agencies operational through Jan. 19.
Should the shutdown happen, each agency has a contingency plan for limited operations until the funding resumes. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, for example, has laid out its plan to keep a small number of staffers and the board members on-hand in the event of a “funding hiatus.”
When asked about contingency plans for a government shutdown, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management directed inquires to the DOE headquarters press office, which did not respond by press time Tuesday.
However, a DOE plan issued in October 2013 offers a guide to the department’s operations activities “in the case of a lapse of appropriations.”
During that fall, there were more than 13,800 employees at the Energy Department. That number now is in the neighborhood of 13,000, DOE officials estimated during a House of Representatives hearing last week.
The 2013 document says that in the event of a government shutdown fewer than 1,000 DOE employees would remain on the job. To sustain operations, DOE would first tap any carryover funds from prior fiscal years. Once such money is no longer available, the department would focus on “functions related to emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property,” according to the document. Less-critical activities would be subject to an “orderly shutdown.”
Regarding the Office of Environmental Management, which oversees DOE nuclear complex cleanup, the document says: “In the event of a lapse of appropriations and the exhaustion of available balances, a small staff would be in place related to the protection of property.” Likewise, bare bones staffs would be on hand at cleanup sites across the nation. It appeared the largest single group of DOE employees remaining on the job would be at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, where there were 22 “excepted employees.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, regulator for commercial nuclear and nuclear waste operations, has a list of “excepted functions” that could be maintained “subsequent to an exhaustion of funds,” according to the agency’s contingency plan for periods of lapsed appropriations. These operations include emergency response, enforcement, resident inspections, and the work of the commissioners themselves.
