White House reveals DHS shutdown plan

by Jesse Byrnes and Ben Kamisar - 02/27/15 7:16 PM ET

The Obama administration released a plan late Friday for how the Department of Homeland Security will deal with a shutdown, as Congressional leaders remain at an impasse over how to fund the agency.

The 46-page document notes that those responsible for airport security, the Secret Service, law enforcement, intelligence gathering and the border patrol are among the 87 percent of personnel exempted from a shutdown.

Some services, such as disaster relief and fee-funded immigration services would continue, while so-called non-essential employees with administrative duties would be furloughed, such as those involved with research and development, policy, auditing, regulation and training, and development.

{mosads}”Excepted” or “essential” workers must continue to work, but they won’t be paid until Congress finds an agreement to fund the agency. The DHS memo notes that should DHS shut down, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would direct supervisors to immediately notify exempt employees, likely via email.

Agencies most impacted during the shutdown include the DHS Inspector General, with 47 percent of its employees furloughed, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which would retain just 68 of its 1,039 employees. Others hit hard include smaller offices dealing with nuclear detection and health.

President Obama met with DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson and OMB Director Shaun Donovan on Friday night, as well as other members of his senior team, to discuss the looming shutdown. before the Senate passed a 1-week temporary funding measure. Obama also called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for an update.

At 9p.m. Friday evening, the Senate has passed a 1-week temporary funding measure but the House has yet to vote on the proposal.

The House earlier on Friday failed to approve a stop-gap measure that would have extended the agency’s funding for three weeks. Some Republicans refused to back the measure because it didn’t specifically defund President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, while Democrats mostly voted against the bill because they want a longer-term funding measure.

Lawmakers have noted that the vast majority of DHS employees would continue to work despite a shutdown, while others would be furloughed. The DHS memo notes that as of December 2014, DHS had 225,017 employees, and of those 194,649 would be exempted during a shutdown:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection – 53,288 of 59,546 exempted

Transportation Security Administration – 52,604 of 55,791 exempted

U.S. Coast Guard – 42,147 of 48,261 exempted

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement -15,073 of 18,765 exempted

Federal Emergency Management Agency – 9,684 of 14,024 exempted

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services – 13,099 of 13,451 exempted

U.S. Secret Service – 5,818 of 6,336 exempted

National Protection and Programs Directorate – 1,748 of 3,064 exempted

Office of the Under Secretary for Management – 239 of 2,021 exempted

Federal Law Enforcement Training Center – 68 of 1,039 exempted

Analysis and Operations – 381 of 794 exempted

Inspector General – 352 of 668 exempted