What do you think of the complete Government Furlough? Who will be affected and how long will it last?

SFC William Stephens A. Jr., 3 MSM, JSCM — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 13:06:52 -0400

Response by SFC William Stephens A. Jr., 3 MSM, JSCM made Apr 27 at 2017 1:10 PM

SFC William Stephens A. Jr., 3 MSM, JSCM — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 13:10:03 -0400

Is just NAVY? Why isn't it on social media or the news?

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Apr 27 at 2017 1:17 PM

CPT Jack Durish — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 13:17:09 -0400

There will be no "complete Government Furlough". Key services will be continued. I don't expect (at least I hope) that the Trump Administration will use the opportunity to punish Americans as President Obama did. Remember the "Barry-cades", closing down open air malls that could have easily remained open during the government shutdown? Remember, the government isn't broke. It simply lacks spending authorization for discretionary items. Ultimately, I would love to see it used as an opportunity to demonstrate the fact that several bureaucracies could be shut down permanently. The US Dept of Education. The US Dept of Energy. The EPA. Et al...

Response by SGT William Howell made Apr 27 at 2017 3:36 PM

SGT William Howell — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 15:36:29 -0400

I say shut it down fire everybody and we start again from scratch.

Response by Lt Col Jim Coe made Apr 27 at 2017 6:20 PM

Lt Col Jim Coe — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 18:20:09 -0400

I can address this question based on my experience as a Government Contractor and an Army Civilian during shutdowns. If there is no Defense appropriation, then both the unified commands and Services do not have appropriated funds available. This has variable effects depending on each employee's status and the type of organization to which they are assigned.
-Active Component and Reserve Component on active duty military members will report for duty as normal. Their pay may be delayed anywhere from not at all to a few weeks.
-Reserve Component (not on active duty): I'm not sure
-Government Civilians: Many will be furloughed. In an appropriated fund organization, such as an Infantry Division, there would be no funds to pay the Government Civilians, so they would not come to work. Their official duty status would be furlough. Organizations that operate on a Working Capital Fund or Industrial Fund, some to all of the civilians would come to work for a designated number of days, then be furloughed. Working Capital organizations, such as US Transportation Command and its Service Components (AMC, MSC, SDDC) are fee-for-service organizations. They have reserve funds in their working capital account they can use to pay the civilian workforce, usually for one to four weeks. To make this easier, they may select specific civilian positions, e.g., mission essential, to come to work while all others are furloughed. Depending on the state in which the Government Civilian lives, he or she may be able to claim unemployment compensation for the furlough period. In past Government shutdowns, the subsequent appropriation bill contained money for the Services to pay civilians the back pay for the furlough days--essentially a free vacation with unemployment as a bonus.
-Government Contractors: There are many variables in this case, but some contractors may be required to come to work during a Government shutdown. Contracting officers normally provide contract-specific guidance to contractors in advance of a Government shutdown. In the past here's what I've seen. If the contractor's "supervisor" is military or a Government Civilian who isn't furloughed, then the contractor will almost always continue to work. Some contracts do not require on-site work, i.e., the work is done at the contractor's facility, so they may continue to work without direct Government supervision. If the contractor works on-site and there is no supervision, then the contracting officer may decide work on the contract must stop. The companies are going "at risk" when they work during a period of no appropriation because they will pay their employees for the time they worked (fair labor standards law), but sometimes have no guarantee that the Government will pay them for the labor or materials used during the period of no appropriation. The Government refusing to pay for provided goods and services is rare.

Coming out of the shutdown takes time. Once the appropriation is passed and signed into law, there is a "waterfall" of downward allocation of appropriated funds that happens. The Services receive the appropriations and must subdivide the funds, according to the law, among its organizations and any unified commands it supports. The Air Force supports USTRANSCOM; the Navy, US Pacific Command. The Service major commands then sub-allocate funds to their subordinate organizations and so on down to the lowest level organization that receives appropriated funds. This can take weeks.