On the previous Friday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its "Procedures Relating to a Federal Funding Hiatus." On October 17, 2013, the President signed into law legislation which carries a short-term continuing resolution (CR) funding government operations at a rate generally equivalent to FY2013 post-sequestration levels through January 15, 2014. This act resolves the lapse in funding that began October 1, 2013, returns federal employees to work, and retroactively authorizes pay for both furloughed and exempted employees for the duration of the funding lapse. This report discusses the DHS contingency plan and the potential impacts of a lapse in annual appropriations on DHS operations, and then it discusses several legislative vehicles that mitigated or had the potential to mitigate those impacts. Most of these employees relied on annual appropriations for their salaries, and therefore were not paid during the funding lapse. According to DHS, in the event of a funding lapse, these activities would continue and employees of these programs would continue to work and be paid as long as those revenues and multi-year appropriations were available, because emergency furlough and shutdown of these activities would occur only if resources were depleted. After appropriations are enacted, payroll centers will pay all excepted employees for time worked. Furlough, Exemptions, and DHS Personnel

DHS's contingency plan for the October 1, 2013, funding lapse was detailed enough to outline the impact of a shutdown by component using the number of staff in the component as a metric. Therefore, the following numbers only provide a limited perspective on the impact of the funding lapse. Figure 1 shows a graphic representation of the impact of the lapse in appropriations on the department's workforce as outlined in the DHS emergency furlough procedures document. The Department of Defense (DOD) and DHS did not initially avoid furlough for any of its employees under the provisions of the act, as the Department of Justice had cautioned that the law did not allow them to end furlough for all civilian employees, or allow all contractors to be paid, because of language in the act specifying funding civilian employees and contractors who provide "support" for military personnel in active service. Legislative Vehicles to Mitigate Impacts of the October 1, 2013, Funding Gap

Several pieces of legislation were introduced that would have impacted the funding status of the Department, allowing it to either pay employees or restore operations to varying degrees during the October 1, 2013, lapse in appropriations. 113-39—the Pay Our Military Act (H.R. 113-39 , 475 Coast Guard personnel remained furloughed until the enactment of P.L. 85 .
Absent legislation providing appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for FY2014, the Department implemented a shutdown furlough on October 1, 2013. Operations of different components were affected to varying degrees by the shutdown. While an estimated 31,295 employees were furloughed, roughly 85% of the department's workforce continued with their duties that day, due to exceptions identified in current interpretations of law. Some DHS employees were recalled to work after the furloughs began on the basis of unanticipated needs (such as disaster preparedness activities) or the enactment of appropriations legislation that temporarily covered personnel costs.
While the DHS shutdown contingency plan's data on staffing and exemptions from furloughs is not a perfect metric for the broad impacts of the lapse in annual appropriations, some of the data provided by DHS lend a perspective on some of the effects on the department's staffing and operations during the funding gap until fuller post-shutdown reviews are completed.
Even though most of DHS continued to work through the shutdown, most of the department's civilian employees were not being paid until the lapse was resolved. A handful of activities were paid for through multi-year appropriations or other revenues, however, and employees working in those programs continued to be paid on schedule.
During the funding lapse, several pieces of legislation were introduced that would have impacted the funding status of the department, allowing it to either pay employees or restore operations to varying degrees. Two of these were enacted.
The Pay Our Military Act (P.L. 113-39) returned almost 5,800 furloughed Coast Guard civilian employees to work and restored pay for active military personnel and the civilian federal employees and the contractors that support them.
On October 17, 2013, the President signed into law a Senate-amended version of H.R. 2775 which carried a short term continuing resolution (CR) which funds government operations at a rate generally equivalent to FY2013 post-sequestration levels through January 15, 2014. This act resolves the lapse in funding, returns federal employees to work, and retroactively authorizes pay for both furloughed and exempt (or "excepted") employees for the duration of the funding lapse.
This report examines the DHS contingency plan for the funding lapse that began October 1, 2013, and the potential impacts of a lapse in annual appropriations on DHS operations, focusing primarily on the emergency furlough of personnel, and then discusses the legislative vehicles that had the potential to mitigate those same impacts.
CRS is continuing to gather information on the actual impact of the shutdown on DHS operations now that the October 1, 2013, lapse has been resolved, and will update this report as warranted.