FERC will furlough all but 49 of its 1,465 employees if it runs out of money because of a prolonged federal government shutdown.
The first shutdown since 2013 began Saturday after the Senate failed to reach agreement on a spending plan. On Monday night, however, President Trump signed a bill to fund the government through Feb. 8.
The commission’s contingency plan says it will continue normal operations until its funds from prior year appropriations are exhausted. After that, it will continue only “excepted” activities, such as protecting life and property (e.g., inspections of LNG facilities), monitoring for physical and cyber threats to infrastructure, and market monitoring. “The excepted staff will perform a minimum level of these oversight roles, to monitor for urgent matters,” the plan says.
FERC staff and commissioners pledge allegiance at open meeting Thursday. Most staff would be furloughed during a prolonged shutdown but the commissioners will remain at work | FERC
Because the five commissioners will continue working through any hiatus, FERC also will keep some legal staff working to provide advice.
The commission will stop accepting filings from the public and postpone deadlines and due dates for all pending matters not related to excepted activities. It will seek stays from all cases pending in federal courts. “If the courts deny the stay and explicitly or implicitly rule that FERC participation in these matters is authorized under the protection of life and property exceptions provided in 31 U.S.C § 1342 or some other applicable provision of law, FERC staff will be required to meet obligations established by these courts.”
In addition to retaining 49 staffers (3.4% of the total), the commission will also maintain 18 contract workers to provide physical security for FERC facilities and information technology support.
The Interior and Energy departments expect to furlough about three-quarters of their workforces. EPA could lay off 95% but says it has “sufficient resources to remain open for a limited amount of time.”
— Rich Heidorn Jr.
