Just in time for the holiday season, once again government contractors are being held hostage to Congressional factions that refuse to compromise. Just as the times before, there is very little precedent to guide contractors on what will or may happen down the road if the factions continue to play games with the lives of the American people.
Much depends on the individual contract. If you are lucky enough to have a contract under which your personnel are deemed essential, they will be required to continue performing services under the contract. However, if the accounting arms of the agencies under which you are contracted are NOT essential, they may not be there to process invoices or pay you, even if the funds have already been allocated. This possibility, of course, hits smaller contractors disproportionately, as they do not have funds lying around to cover payroll with nothing coming in.
If your employees are NOT considered essential, chances are they will not be working in the case of a government shutdown. This means you will either have to furlough them (likely without pay unless you have the funds to spare), or put them on overhead while this plays out. Given the fact that many in Congress don’t understand the impact these types of political games have on the contractor community, and given that many Americans feel that federal workers are paid too much anyway (despite proof otherwise), there will likely not be much sympathy generated as the finger pointing plays out.
I would suggest that all government contractors and their companies, large and small, begin pushing both sides of the aisle in Congress to compromise and pass a budget before the trickle down of millions of government employees and contractors make this a very sad holiday season for the entire economy.
A weekend of talks among members of the congressional panel charged with finding $1.2 trillion in budget cuts apparently failed to produce a compromise.
