Fiscal year 2015 closes today, leaving just hours for the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a stopgap spending bill that would prevent a government shutdown on October 1. To speed the voting process, the House invoked martial law on Tuesday, lessening the required wait time for voting in order to maximize the possibility that the bill would make it to President Obama before the end of Wednesday.
Between the martial law invocation and the bill having already passed through the U.S. Senate, a government shutdown may be unlikely, at least until December 11 when the bill expires. Regardless, VA is ahead of the curve on issuing its contingency plan in the absence of appropriations.
Of the VHA’s 323,621 employees, only 1,080 would be subject to furlough, in recognition of the VA’s obligation to provide high-quality medical care to veterans. The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) would see a higher furlough rate (7,824 of 22,111 employees), as would the National Cemetery Administration (1,105 of 1,880 employees) and the Office of Information Technology (OI&T) (3,501 of 7,874 employees). The VA notes that in the event of a prolonged shutdown, it would need to begin furloughing excepted employees in VBA and OI&T, raising the rates even higher. If that becomes the case, the contingency plan will be updated.
This time 2 years ago, the government experienced a similar crisis, resulting in about 800,000 federal employees furloughed and another 1.3 million expected to work without known payment dates. The 2013 shutdown lasted from October 1 through October 16 when an interim appropriations bill was signed. Prior to that, the government hadn’t experienced a shutdown since 1995. With only a short-term spending bill on the table, the threat of a government shutdown will continue to hang over the heads of VA and other federal employees.