Federal Judiciary Can Pay Staff Two Weeks Longer in Shutdown (1)

The federal judiciary can continue “paid operations” through Oct. 17 if the government shutdown continues, two weeks longer than initially projected, a top judiciary official said Wednesday.

Judiciary employees will continue to be fully paid while working for the next two weeks, and staff will receive their Oct. 10 and 24 paychecks as planned, Judge Robert Conrad, the director of the federal judiciary’s administrative office, said in a Wednesday internal memo to judges and court staff, obtained by Bloomberg Law.

Conrad previously said the judiciary could run out of money as soon as Friday, threatening furloughs of court staff for the first time in three decades. The judiciary’s administrative office said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that it had “identified available fees and balances to pay for an additional two weeks.”

Still, entities within the judicial branch “should defer costs that are not mission critical” during this time, Conrad wrote in the memo. Courts should also continue reviewing expenses from current and previous fiscal years that can be cut and to record daily activity until a stopgap funding bill is enacted, the memo says.

If the shutdown extends beyond Oct. 17, the judiciary will have exhausted its remaining money and will limit its operations to those that are constitutionally required or necessary to protect human life and property, he said.

“I understand the disruption and uncertainty that a lapse in appropriations has on court personnel and operations. We are hopeful that this lapse in appropriations is quickly resolved,” Conrad wrote.

Federal courts across the US are bracing for slower dockets and to cut back on administrative work if the judiciary runs out of funds during the ongoing government shutdown.

The federal judiciary has previously had the funds to continue operating and paying employees during shutdowns, including the five-week lapse in appropriations during the shutdown that began in late 2018. The last time the federal judiciary furloughed staff during a government shutdown was in 1995.

However, Conrad told staff in late September that “tight budgets” in recent years, including Congress’ decision to fund the judiciary at a flat rate in fiscal 2025 “have reduced the availability of carryforward and other balances needed to sustain paid operations during a lapse.”