@StateDept Tells Employees There’s “Enough Time” and It’s Updating Contingency Plans For “Orderly Shutdown”

January 19, 2018 By in Congress, Realities of the FS, Staffing the FS, State Department, U.S. Senate Tags: , , ,

Posted: 9:59 am PT
Updated: Jan 22, 2018; 3:12 pm PT

 

Update: Late January 19, the State Department released its Guidance on Operations during a Lapse in Appropriations which supersedes the previous guidance issued December 9, 2017. USAID’s guidance released at 7:30 pm on January 19 is available here. 

Related to our prior post — As Govt #Shutdown Looms Large, @StateDept Still “Reviewing All Available Options” #MissingGuidance — we’ve learned that Acting DGHR and “M Coordinator” Bill Todd sent out a message to State Department employees this morning concerning planning for a potential lapse in appropriations.

He tells employees that “The Administration strongly believes that a lapse in funding should not occur. There is enough time to prevent a lapse in appropriations.”

He talks about “prudent management” and working on updating the agency’s contingency plans for “executing an orderly shutdown” should there be a lapse in appropriations:

“… prudent management requires that we be prepared for all contingencies, including the possibility that a lapse could occur. A lapse would mean that a number of government activities would cease due to a lack of appropriated funding, and that a number of employees would be temporarily furloughed. To prepare for this possibility, we are working to update our contingency plans for executing an orderly shutdown of activities that would be affected by a lapse in appropriations.”

The potential shutdown is tonight and Tillerson’s godpod people are still working on guidance that should have been out a week ago?

For posts whose workday doesn’t start on Monday but starts tomorrow and Sunday, what are they supposed to do with less than 12 hours to go? The December 2017 guidance says that “Posts that normally operate on Saturdays or Sundays will immediately commence procedures.”

But … but … what procedures are they supposed to commence immediately if/when the shutdown happens tonight?

The message from A/DGHR and M Coordinator Bill Todd ends with “The uncertainty of the current circumstances puts our workforce in a difficult situation, and should a lapse occur, it could impose hardships on many employees as well as the people that we serve every day.”  Apparently, he also expressed commitment to providing employees “with updated and timely information on any further developments.”

Uh-oh.  Remember how many folks were furloughed in 2013?

We’ve heard that there are overseas posts already telling employees to just show up on Monday and that they will be told then who will be furloughed. We have not heard yet what will happen to posts that opens tomorrow and Sunday. Are we going to see updated guidance at 11:59 pm tonight? Will folks be working on those furlough lists/letters after midnight tonight?

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