VA employees are largely shielded from a federal government shutdown. About 97 percent of Department of Veterans Affairs staff keep working on their normal schedule and get paid on time, because most VA operations are funded a year in advance rather than through the annual appropriations that lapse when Congress misses a deadline. The remaining 3 percent or so are either furloughed or required to keep working without pay until the shutdown ends. Which group you land in depends entirely on what your office does and where its money comes from.
Why Most VA Staff Keep Working and Getting Paid
When Congress fails to pass its spending bills or a continuing resolution, the Antideficiency Act cuts off most agencies’ authority to spend money or incur obligations. That’s what triggers furloughs across the rest of the executive branch.
The VA is different because of the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009, codified at 38 U.S.C. ยง 117. It created advance appropriations for VA health care, and later legislation extended the model to core benefits accounts. Under this system, Congress approves the money one fiscal year before it is needed. When October 1 arrives and a shutdown begins, the funds for those accounts are already legally available. No new vote is required to keep paying salaries or writing checks.
Seven VA accounts are covered: Medical Services, Medical Community Care, Medical Support and Compliance, Medical Facilities, Compensation and Pensions, Readjustment Benefits, and Veterans Insurance and Indemnities. The four health accounts have had advance appropriations since fiscal year 2013, and the three benefits accounts since fiscal year 2017. Between them, they fund the vast majority of VA positions.
Exempt, Excepted, or Furloughed
The Office of Personnel Management sorts federal workers into three categories during a lapse, and the VA workforce contains all three.
Exempt. Your work is funded by something other than annual appropriations, such as advance or multi-year funding. You report as normal and get paid on schedule. This is where most VA employees sit.
Excepted. Your funding has lapsed, but your duties involve protecting life or property, or otherwise qualify under Department of Justice and Office of Management and Budget guidance. You have to keep working, but you don’t get paid until the shutdown ends.
Non-excepted (furloughed). Your funding has lapsed and your work doesn’t qualify for an exception. You are sent home and cannot work.
The VA’s contingency plan estimates that 97 percent of employees fall into the first two categories combined, with the exempt group accounting for the bulk of that share.
Which VA Employees Actually Get Furloughed
The 3 percent who face furlough or unpaid work tend to sit in a predictable set of offices: those that run on annual appropriations and don’t perform a life-and-property function. Based on the VA’s own contingency plan, the affected functions include:
- The Education Call Center staffing the GI Bill hotline (1-888-GIBILL-1)
- Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment counseling and transition assistance programs
- Grounds maintenance and permanent headstone placement at VA national cemeteries
- Processing of pre-need burial eligibility applications
- Walk-in operations at Veterans Benefits Administration regional offices
- Public affairs, social media, VetResources emails, and outreach to state, tribal, and community partners
- Printing of Presidential Memorial Certificates
Two categories deserve a closer look because they don’t follow the simple exempt-or-furloughed split.
VA medical and prosthetic research runs on multi-year appropriations rather than advance appropriations. Research staff keep working as long as those balances hold. If a shutdown runs long enough to exhaust the funds, projects suspend and the affected staff are furloughed. About 2,985 research positions are classified as excepted to protect against threats to life and property, such as caring for lab animals or preserving biological samples.
The Office of Information and Technology keeps roughly 81 percent of its 8,307-person workforce on duty to run networks, cybersecurity, data center operations, and the systems that VHA and VBA depend on. The rest, working on things like application development and enterprise portfolio management, are furloughed.
Pay and Back Pay
If your position is funded by one of the seven advance-appropriation accounts, your paycheck arrives on its normal schedule. The Treasury processes payroll using money appropriated in the prior fiscal year, and a shutdown doesn’t touch it.
For the 3 percent who are furloughed or working excepted without pay, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 guarantees back pay. Every furloughed federal employee and every excepted employee who worked during the lapse must be paid at their standard rate as soon as possible after funding is restored. Before 2019, back pay required a separate act of Congress each time and wasn’t a given.
Unemployment Compensation
Furloughed VA employees may qualify for Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees. Eligibility is decided under the law of the state where your duty station is located, and some states apply a one-week waiting period. If Congress later provides retroactive pay covering the same period, state overpayment rules may require you to repay the unemployment benefits you received.
Health, Life, and Other Insurance
Federal Employees Health Benefits coverage continues during a shutdown even for employees in non-pay status. Your share of the premium accumulates and is deducted automatically once you return to pay status. If one paycheck can’t absorb the full amount owed, an extra deduction comes out each pay period until the balance clears. You can’t cancel or change your FEHB enrollment during a furlough unless it is Open Season or you have a qualifying life event.
Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance and the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program also continue without interruption. For dental and vision, payroll deductions pause and then resume once you’re back on the payroll. The coverage itself is never interrupted.
Furlough Notices and Returning to Work
Employees who may be furloughed receive written notice from their supervisor before or at the start of a lapse. Because shutdowns can begin at midnight when a continuing resolution expires, the normal 30-day advance notice for furloughs is waived under emergency provisions. You typically have up to four hours to complete orderly shutdown activities, including receiving your notice, before leaving.
While furloughed, you are directed to monitor the VA’s official website, the OPM website, and public news broadcasts for word that funding has been restored. Once it is, you must report for your next regularly scheduled shift. Failing to return is treated as absent without leave.
A Note on Contractors
If you work for a VA contractor rather than the VA itself, the rules above don’t apply to you. Contractors on fully obligated contracts funded by advance or multi-year appropriations generally keep performing, but those who need access to furloughed VA staff, closed office space, or suspended IT systems may be unable to work even when their contract is technically funded. The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act’s back pay guarantee does not extend to contractor employees, so lost work days are not automatically made whole.