Federal Government Shutdown

Page Updated: March 15th, 2024

The Office of Research & Sponsored Programs (RSP) is closely monitoring the budget situation in Washington, D.C. We are working diligently to determine the most appropriate response in the event the Federal government experiences a partial shutdown. The following agencies are among those that may be impacted if a shutdown were to occur on March 23rd, 2024: Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and others.

In the case of a shutdown, there would be impacts to application submission, award processing, no-cost extensions, and other tasks that require federal sponsor interaction. Our commitment to help campus navigate sponsored programs administration is unchanged. We will continue to provide guidance as clearly and timely as possible.

Should you receive any shutdown-related correspondence from the sponsor (e.g., stop work order), please immediately provide the information to your supervisor or Principal Investigator and to Research and Sponsored Programs.

Based on current existing federal agency contingency plans, we anticipate the following. The guidance below will be updated as we learn more.

• Active Awards: In most cases, existing federally-funded projects may continue until they run out of already obligated funding. It is possible that agencies may issue Stop Work Orders for contracts or other transaction agreements. If a Stop Work Order is issued, work must cease and no expenses can be incurred. Please immediately forward such correspondence to rspinfo@rsp.wisc.edu and to your supervisor or principal investigator.
• Proposal Submissions: Proposal systems are likely to be online during a shutdown. While proposals may be accepted in the systems, agency staff will not be available to process them. Proposals submitted during a shutdown will not be processed until normal agency operations resume. After normal operations resume, agencies may issue extensions of deadline dates. It is not clear if Help Desk functions for agency systems will be available during a shutdown. Peer reviews are not expected to occur. This may impact faculty who are reviewers or may result in delays for those whose proposals are awaiting review.
• Pending New Awards & Other Actions: No new grants, continuing increments of funding, cooperative agreements, contracts, other agreements, or supplements will be awarded during a shutdown. Any pending actions requiring prior approval (no-cost extensions, revised budgets, etc.) will not be acted upon during a shutdown, as federal agency personnel will not be available to process them.
• Technical and Financial Reports: If an agency’s electronic reporting system is available (which is expected to be the case), then all reports must be submitted by their original deadline. If a report is submitted by email, it should be filed on time. In either case, report review and/or acceptance by the agency will not occur until normal operations resume.

Please also consider our Shutdown FAQ with other common questions.

Government Shutdown Guidance

Agency Contingency Plans: This link at OMB’s website contains generic guidelines prepared by each agency. A selection of individual agency plans is available below.