USAF Shutdown Guidance

The Air Force has issued guidance for a potential government shutdown should Congress fail to pass an appropriations bill or approve of a continuing resolution by midnight Monday, when fiscal year 2013 expires.

The Air Force, in a series of guidance documents dated Sept. 26, says that if there is a government shutdown, all service websites will state: "Due to the government shutdown, this Web site is not being updated." Social media sites will not be subject to that restriction, per the guidance. Inside the Air Force obtained a copy of the guidance today.

In addition, the guidance documents suggest common themes and messages that Air Force personnel should stick to when discussing the potential government shutdown, such as highlighting how "extremely disruptive" the current funding status is to the Air Force and urging Congress to act swiftly to pass an FY-14 spending bill and avert the shutdown.

"The Air Force strongly supports an appropriations bill, which would provide Congressional direction on the strategic choices expressed in the FY-14 President's Budget and would provide authority for new starts and production rate increases for investment programs, including military construction (MILCON)," the guidance states.

Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale will be holding a briefing at 2 p.m. today on the Defense Department's contingency plan guidance for a potential government shutdown.

The Air Force guidance documents also contain a list of commonly asked questions about civilian furloughs. DOD stated in a Sept. 23 memo that an additional round of civilian furloughs would be implemented if there is a government shutdown.

"While military personnel would continue in a normal duty status, a large number of our civilian employees would be temporarily furloughed," the memo states. "To prepare for this possibility, we are updating our contingency plans for executing an orderly shutdown of activities that would be affected by a lapse in appropriations."

DOD civilians were furloughed for six days in FY-13 as a result of sequestration, which kicked in on March 1. Those budget cuts would reduce DOD's budget by $500 billion over the span of 10 years.