Which federal employees are classified as "excepted" and must work during a government shutdown?
Executive summary
During a lapse in appropriations, agencies sort employees into two legal buckets: “excepted” employees who must continue working because their duties protect life or property or are necessary to the orderly suspension of operations, and “exempt” employees whose work and pay are funded outside annual appropriations and so continue as normal; excepted workers typically perform emergency, safety, or shutdown-closure tasks and generally work without pay until funding resumes [1] [2] [3]. The precise list is not uniform across government—each agency makes the legal determination guided by OMB/OPM rules and the Antideficiency Act—and practice has produced confusion and disputes in specific agencies during recent shutdowns [2] [1] [4].
1. What “excepted” means in law and guidance
“Excepted” employees are those whose functions the law requires continue despite a lapse in appropriations—most commonly work that involves the safety of human life or the protection of property and tasks needed to effect an orderly shutdown—based on OMB and OPM guidance implementing the Antideficiency Act; agencies must identify who falls into that category and recall them to duty [2] [1] [5].
2. Common categories of excepted workers: safety, security, and essential operations
Typical excepted roles include first responders, air traffic controllers, law enforcement and homeland security staff, certain medical personnel, and others whose absence would immediately endanger life or property; agencies also except employees needed to carry out an orderly suspension of operations (closing systems, safeguarding data, continuing essential monitoring) rather than all programmatic work [5] [3] [2].
3. The “exempt” distinction: paid continuity outside annual appropriations
Separate from “excepted,” some employees are “exempt” from furloughs because their salaries are funded outside the annual appropriations process—examples include certain fee-funded or working-capital-funded positions—and those employees usually continue to work and be paid as normal during a lapse [1] [6] [7].
4. Pay rules and the practical reality for excepted employees
Excepted employees are generally required to work without pay during the lapse of appropriations; Congress has in the past provided retroactive back pay (and 2019 law aimed to guarantee back pay), but legal guidance and political disputes can complicate immediate access to wages, and the guarantee has been a point of contention in guidance and legislative fixes [8] [7] [9].
5. Agency discretion, funding sources, and operational gray areas
Agencies exercise discretion in classifying positions because the test hinges on the funding source of particular work and legal interpretations of necessity; OPM guidance instructs agencies to decide based on whether work is affected by the lapse and what funding underlies it, which creates variation across agencies and even confusion inside them [1] [2] [3].
6. Where the rules break down: disputes and real-world confusion
Recent shutdowns exposed inconsistencies—agencies have both misclassified staff and issued conflicting instructions (for example, GSA notices that left employees unclear whether to work), underscoring that the statutory/OMB/OPM framework can generate operational and legal friction during a shutdown [4] [2].
7. Who is excluded: contractors and limits on volunteering
Federal contractors are not federal employees and generally do not receive back pay unless Congress acts; agencies are also prohibited, absent specific authorization, from accepting voluntary services of regular employees to perform excepted duties during a lapse, which compounds workforce management challenges [8] [6].
8. Bottom line and limitations of reporting
In sum, excepted employees are those legally required to work during a shutdown because their functions protect life/property or are necessary to suspend operations; exempt employees are those paid from non-annual appropriations and typically continue to be paid. The exact roster varies by agency and funding source, and while OPM/OMB guidance sets the framework, agency decisions, legal interpretations, and political developments (including post-shutdown legislation on back pay) shape the concrete outcome in any given lapse [1] [2] [8]. This reporting cannot produce a definitive, exhaustive list of job titles across every agency because the classification is made at the agency level and changes with funding and legal opinions [1] [2].