Government Shutdown December 2026: Funding Runs Out Dec 11

Last Updated: October 28, 2026 (funding still runs through December 11; OMB memo M-27-01 issued October 23)

Update, October 28: The deadline has not moved. Funding under H.R. 6500 (Public Law 119-103, § 106(3)) runs until December 11, 2026, so a lapse would begin December 12. As of October 28, none of the 12 full-year spending bills has been enacted. On October 23, OMB and OPM sent agency heads memo M-27-01, which says the 2025 guidance on RIFs during a lapse was "rescinded in full" and is "no longer operative." Back pay remains in statute: 31 U.S.C. 1341(c) pays furloughed and excepted employees after a lapse ends, once Congress enacts the bill ending it. On pay, the President's August 26 plan holds 2027 civilian base and locality pay at 2026 rates, with 3.8% for law enforcement.

Update, September 3: President Trump signed H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, on September 2. Federal agencies are funded through December 11, 2026, so there will not be a government-wide shutdown on October 1. The next funding cliff is December 11.

Update, September 2: The October 1 shutdown is effectively off. The House passed the Senate's continuing resolution 370-48 on September 1, 2026, clearing H.R. 6500 for the President's signature. Once signed, agencies run at FY2026 levels through December 11, 2026. The CR also keeps the block on OMB's political-appointee grant-review rule and bars DHS from shifting funds to Border Patrol. Two things do not change: the President's August 26 alternative pay plan (0% civilian base and locality, 3.8% for law enforcement) is a separate track, taking effect in January unless Congress enacts a different figure, and December 11 lands the week before the holiday pay period, so the next preparation window opens in November. Watch this page for any second stopgap or full-year deal before December 11. Reading Time: 8 min

Update, August 9: The Senate passed the CR 90-6 on August 8: final passage, not just cloture. (The vehicle is H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027.) The bill funds the government at FY2026 levels through December 11, 2026, extends surface-transportation programs, and blocks the OMB rule requiring senior political appointees to approve grants until December 11. Six senators voted no (Cassidy, Paul, Kaine, Markey, Warren, Sanders). The measure now goes to the House, which returns in early September and must accept the Senate's December 11 date (its own version said December 4) before the President can sign. Bottom line: the October 1 cliff is still technically live, but this is the clearest path to avoiding a shutdown federal employees have seen this cycle; the fight now moves to December 11.

Update, August 7: The Senate voted 89-4 on August 3 to advance its own continuing resolution, a procedural cloture vote, not final passage. The Senate version funds the government through December 11, not the House's December 4, and adds WIC adjustments, shipbuilding funds, disaster relief, and a block on OMB's federal financial assistance rule until December 11. A final Senate vote is expected within days. Because the dates differ, the House, out until about August 31, must still concur before anything reaches the President's desk. The 89-4 margin is the strongest bipartisan funding signal in years, but nothing is signed: the October 1 cliff remains live until both chambers pass the same text.

Update, July 26: The House passed H.R. 9770, a clean continuing resolution that would fund the government at FY2026 levels through December 4, 2026, on July 21 by a 220-205 vote. The Senate has not voted, and nothing is signed. Until that happens, the October 1 cliff is still live: a House-passed CR died in the Senate as recently as October 2025, kicking off a 43-day shutdown. If the Senate passes it and the President signs, the shutdown question moves to December 4, not away. This page will be updated as the CR moves.

The October 1, 2026 deadline has been pushed to December 11 by the CR that cleared Congress on September 1. Here is how the scoreboard looked on July 1 (as of October 28, none of the 12 bills has been enacted), when this page launched: the House has passed 2 of the 12 FY2027 appropriations bills. The Senate has passed zero. It has not even agreed on its spending toplines. Federal employees have lived through three funding lapses since October 2025 and have every reason to watch this one closely, with enough time to prepare properly.

Update, September 27, 2026: Shutdown-RIF Language Comes Out of the Lapse Plans (Through December 31)

The single biggest change to the December 11 risk picture landed on September 25. In AFGE v. OMB, the case over the RIF notices agencies issued during the 43-day 2025 lapse, the administration and the unions filed a settlement (Dkt. 198, N.D. Cal.; agreement signed September 23). Under it, OPM and OMB must tell every agency head within 30 days that the guidance authorizing RIFs during a lapse is rescinded, agencies must remove any RIF authorization from their shutdown contingency plans within 30 days, and no agency can put that language back without giving the unions 30 days' notice and publishing the change. The case stays in abeyance until December 31, 2026 or the enactment of full-year FY2027 appropriations, whichever comes first, and the unions can move to reopen it only if an agency signals it intends to authorize RIFs during a lapse. The agreement also records that every 2025 shutdown RIF notice was rescinded and every separated employee reinstated. What it does not do is change furlough mechanics or back pay: those still run on the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act. The full breakdown of what the settlement guarantees, what it leaves open, and what to do before December 11 is in Shutdown RIF notices are off the table: your rights before December 11. The obligation carries a statutory exception (work a statute expressly authorizes during a lapse), a change route (a plan can be changed back after 30 days' notice to the plaintiffs and public publication), and an end date (plans operative through December 31, 2026); the parties have asked the court to hold the case in abeyance, and the court's order is what puts that schedule in force.

The two House-passed bills tell you how hard the rest will be. Military Construction-VA passed 400-15 on May 15, the easy one. Agriculture squeaked through 213-210 on June 4. Ten bills remain, and the contested ones (Labor-HHS, Interior, Homeland Security) haven't reached the floor.

The bigger problem sits in the numbers. House Republicans are writing bills totaling about $1.856 trillion, roughly $217 billion (13%) above FY2026 enacted levels. The Senate hasn't set its own toplines and has postponed markups twice over that disagreement. Both chambers also lose most of August to recess, which compresses the real negotiating window to a handful of legislative weeks.

Add it up: 122 days (House Historian figures), about a third of the time since October 1, 2025, with some or all of the government unfunded. The 76-day DHS lapse broke the record on March 29 and left marks that outlasted the back pay: more than 1,100 TSA officers quit during the shutdown rather than keep working without pay.

That history cuts both ways. It shows Congress can absolutely drive past the guardrails. It also means every federal employee reading this has recent, personal data on what a lapse actually feels like, and until December 11 to act on it.

What a Shutdown Would Delay, Grade by Grade

Start with the most important framing: shutdown pay is delayed, not lost. The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act guarantees retroactive pay once funding resumes. What a shutdown really does is freeze your cash flow while your mortgage, rent, and childcare bills keep arriving on schedule.

Methodology: 2026 GS base plus locality (Rest of U.S. 17.06%, Washington-Baltimore-Arlington 33.94%), converted to biweekly pay using OPM's hourly method (annual ÷ 2,087 × 80). A 30-day lapse spans about two paychecks. A repeat of the 43-day October 2025 shutdown would stretch to three.

These are gross figures. Your real planning number is your net paycheck after taxes, FEHB, TSP, and other deductions. That's the hole you'd need your emergency fund to fill.

Back Pay Is Law, but the Guidance Fight Was Real

If you heard during the last shutdown that back pay was suddenly "not guaranteed," here is what actually happened.

GEFTA, passed in 2019, requires retroactive pay for furloughed and excepted employees after any lapse. OPM's January 2026 guidance says "Congress will determine via legislation whether furloughed employees receive pay." That caused understandable alarm. But the statute was never amended: 31 U.S.C. 1341(c) still says furloughed employees "shall be paid for the period of the lapse," once Congress enacts the bill that ends it.

Treat the statute as solid while planning for the timing gap: back pay comes only after the lapse ends and the funding bill is enacted.

Two groups need extra caution. Excepted employees must keep working without pay during a lapse; being excepted means you report to work, not that you get paid on time. Federal contractors have no GEFTA protection at all. Contractors received nothing retroactively after the DHS shutdown and should plan around a larger cushion, more like 3 to 6 months of expenses.

A few benefit mechanics worth knowing in advance: FEHB coverage continues through any shutdown, with your premium share collected out of back pay afterward. You can still request a new TSP loan during a lapse; the normal eligibility rules apply. Don't assume missed agency contributions catch up automatically: ask your payroll office how back-pay contributions are posted. Annual leave cannot be used to cover furlough days.

Your Checklist Before December 11

Everything on this list is free to do now and painful to improvise on December 12.

1. Find your real net paycheck. Gross tables are for headlines. Run your grade, step, and locality through the Federal Take-Home Pay Calculator to see the actual biweekly deposit at risk.
2. Read your agency's contingency plan. It designates which positions are excepted (work without pay) and which are furloughed (sent home without pay). People guess this wrong all the time, and the answer changes your childcare and commuting math.
3. Target 2 to 3 months of net pay in savings. The federal employee emergency fund guide covers where to hold it and how to build it fast on a GS salary.
4. Call your federal credit union now. Many offered 0% or low-interest shutdown relief loans during the 2025-2026 lapses, and enrollment was smoother for members who asked before the crisis.
5. If you need cash mid-lapse, look at a TSP loan before a withdrawal. A general-purpose loan avoids taxes and penalties. Hardship withdrawals permanently shrink your balance.
6. Bookmark the back-pay mechanics. Our shutdown back pay guide covers exactly how and when the money returns, based on how it played out at DHS.

A CR Is Still the Most Likely Outcome

For all the alarming arithmetic above, the base case is not a shutdown. It's a continuing resolution: a stopgap that funds agencies at current levels past December 11 while negotiations continue. Under a CR, you work and get paid normally.

The track record backs this up. Congress has enacted 139 CRs since 1998 and has not completed all 12 bills by October 1 since FY1997. Missing the deadline is normal; the lapse happens when the stopgap itself fails. That's what went wrong in October 2025, when a CR died 14 times in the Senate over the ACA subsidy fight.

The November 2026 midterm is the wild card. The deadline now falls after the November 3 election, in a lame-duck session. But the same stakes make every spending fight a messaging opportunity, and the 13% gap between the House bills and current spending gives both sides something to fight about.

Watch three signals before December 11: a second stopgap bill, full-year bills reaching the floor, and agency contingency-plan updates. The later those happen, the higher the risk.

Calculate Your Real Paycheck Gap

The table above shows gross pay. Your shutdown planning number is your net deposit. Use our free Federal Take-Home Pay Calculator to see your actual biweekly take-home by grade, step, and locality, then size your emergency fund against it. For a full refresher on how lapses work, the government shutdown guide covers furlough rules, TSA lessons, and the legal fights from the last one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will there be a government shutdown on October 1, 2026?

No. President Trump signed H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, on September 2, 2026. It funds federal agencies through December 11, 2026, so the next government-wide funding deadline is December 11 rather than October 1.

Do federal employees get back pay after a shutdown?

Yes, under current law. 31 U.S.C. 1341(c), as amended by the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, says furloughed employees "shall be paid for the period of the lapse," and excepted employees are paid too, once Congress enacts the bill ending the lapse. OPM's January 2026 guidance defers to Congress. GEFTA back pay arrives after the shutdown ends; any pay during a lapse depends on separately available funding.

How much pay is at risk for my grade in a shutdown?

The pay is delayed, not lost, but the cash-flow gap is real. A GS-12 step 5 in a Rest of U.S. locality has a gross biweekly paycheck of about $3,889, so a 30-day lapse delays roughly $7,778. A GS-13 step 5 in the DC locality has about $5,291 per check at stake. Use the Federal Take-Home Pay Calculator to see your net number, which is the gap you actually have to cover.

What is a continuing resolution and how does it affect my pay?

A continuing resolution (CR) is stopgap legislation that keeps agencies funded at prior-year levels while Congress keeps negotiating. Under a CR you work and get paid normally. There is no furlough and no missed paycheck. The risk is that CRs have their own expiration dates, and a failed CR renewal is exactly how the October 2025 shutdown started.

What should federal employees do before December 11, 2026?

Five things: know your actual net biweekly paycheck, check your agency's contingency plan to learn whether your position is excepted or furloughed, build an emergency fund covering 2 to 3 months of net pay, ask your federal credit union about shutdown relief loans before you need one, and if you need cash during a lapse, look at a TSP loan before a TSP withdrawal. Annual leave cannot be used to cover furlough days, so leave balances are not a safety net here.

Related Resources

• Federal Take-Home Pay Calculator: Your net biweekly paycheck by grade, step, and locality.
• Government Shutdown Guide 2026: The full record of the 76-day DHS shutdown, furlough rules, and legal fights.
• Shutdown Back Pay Mechanics: Exactly how and when back pay arrives, from the DHS experience.
• Federal Employee Emergency Fund Guide: How to build a shutdown-sized cushion on a GS salary.

Sources: CRFB Appropriations Watch: FY2027 (bill status as of June 25, 2026), Congress.gov Appropriations Status Table, OPM Guidance for Shutdown Furloughs, Federal News Network on OPM's back-pay guidance change, GovExec on the February 2026 back-pay guarantee. Paycheck-at-risk table is FedTools 2026 analysis of OPM GS base and locality pay tables.