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What did the Office of Personnel Management say about shutdowns in 2013 and 2019?
Executive Summary
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) consistently framed shutdowns in 2013 and 2019 as legally driven “shutdown furloughs” that occur when annual appropriations lapse, requiring agencies to curtail non-excepted activities while excepted employees continue working and are paid, often with retroactive pay [1] [2] [3]. OPM’s guidance across those years emphasized the same core topics—employee coverage, pay, leave, benefits, and procedural steps for implementing furloughs—while later documents in 2019 incorporated statutory changes and additional memoranda addressing telework and employee flexibilities during a lapse in appropriations [2] [4] [3].
1. How OPM Framed Shutdowns: Clear rules, legal roots, and operational guidance
OPM described a shutdown furlough as the operational result of a lapse in annual appropriations, obligating agencies to cease activities not authorized by law and identify “excepted” functions that must continue for safety, protection of property, or essential emergency work, with those excepted employees paid for work performed [1] [3]. The guidance provided a practical framework—sample notices, criteria for excepted vs. non-excepted roles, and discussion of leave and benefits—intended to help agencies implement furloughs under the Antideficiency Act and related rules. OPM’s materials positioned federal managers as responsible for applying these principles to agency-specific circumstances, underlining that OPM guidance was a baseline rather than a one-size-fits-all operational order [1] [2].
2. What OPM said in 2013: planning, retroactive pay, and leave restoration
In 2013 OPM issued guidance focused on planning for operations during potential lapses and on practical employee impacts, including retroactive pay for excepted workers and rules for annual leave, restoration of forfeited leave, and unemployment benefits for furloughed employees [1] [5]. The 2013 memoranda and related compensation policy memoranda addressed how agencies should notify employees, how furlough time interacts with benefits such as FMLA eligibility, and how leave accounting should be handled following a shutdown. OPM’s 2013 documentation aimed to standardize agency responses while acknowledging agency discretion in classifying excepted activities, making clarity and compliance with statutory requirements the core message [1] [5].
3. What OPM said in 2019: updates, law changes, and employee protections
OPM’s 2019 guidance reiterated 2013 principles but added specific memoranda and fact sheets reflecting the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act and other administrative clarifications, supplying updated instructions on pay and telework flexibilities for excepted employees during the lengthy 2018–2019 lapse [2] [4]. OPM issued CPMs in 2019 that addressed restoration of leave, telework for excepted personnel, and consolidated pay-and-benefits FAQs; these documents reinforced that excepted employees would receive retroactive pay while furloughed employees might be eligible for unemployment compensation. The 2019 materials were more granular about administrative flexibilities and operational implementation after lawmakers enacted retroactive-pay provisions, demonstrating how statutory changes shaped OPM’s practical guidance [3] [4].
4. Consistencies across years and the legal backbone OPM repeated
Across 2013 and 2019 OPM repeatedly emphasized the same legal backbone: the Antideficiency Act triggers the furlough process, agencies must identify excepted functions, and excepted employees are paid (often retroactively) while non-excepted employees are furloughed and may seek unemployment benefits or have leave adjustments [1] [3]. OPM’s guidance consistently included sample notices and operational checklists, addressed impacts on retirement, Thrift Savings Plan access, and workers’ compensation, and clarified leave-counting rules for FMLA and parental leave calculations. These repeated points show OPM treating shutdown guidance as an evolving but stable framework, updated with new memoranda when statutory or operational circumstances changed [6] [2].
5. What differed, what was added, and what remained vague
The principal changes from 2013 to 2019 were more detailed administrative instructions and incorporation of new statutory requirements, such as explicit fact sheets and CPMs in 2019 addressing telework and retroactive pay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act [2] [4]. Gaps remained: OPM guidance left agencies significant discretion in classifying excepted work, produced variable agency-level implementations, and sometimes deferred to other agencies for benefits specifics. Several source analyses note that while OPM’s framework is comprehensive, individual documents occasionally omit explicit mention of particular years or fail to capture every statutory nuance, causing variation in public-facing explanations and operational practice [7] [6].
6. Bottom line for readers: Reliable framework, evolving details, agency discretion
OPM consistently communicated that shutdowns force curtailment of non-excepted activities and that excepted employees are to be paid (with retroactive pay in practice), while furloughed workers face leave, pay, and benefits consequences mitigated by unemployment eligibility and later statutory remedies; 2019 guidance added greater clarity around telework and the procedural fallout of extended lapses [1] [2] [3]. The overarching fact is that OPM provides a standard legal-operational framework that evolves when Congress or administrative policy changes, but agency-level determinations and communications determine how employees experience a shutdown in practice [2] [3].