The Whitfield Memo
A daily memo on the decisions that reach the federal workforce.
Written by Whitfield for federal employees, retirees and government contractors.
Latest memo
- Date
- Re
- What is settled, and what is not, if funding lapses on December 12
Bottom line
The government is funded through December 11, 2026, and Congress comes back next week to decide what follows [1, 2, 10]. Two things have changed since the stopgap passed: OMB and OPM have formally withdrawn the 2025 documents that let agencies run layoffs during a lapse [3], and the midterm results have reshaped the negotiation over the 2027 pay freeze [10, 11]. The back pay question for furloughed employees remains less settled than the statute suggests [5, 6].
Read memo No. 001: The December 11 Deadline: Back Pay, Shutdown RIF Rules and the 2027 Pay Freeze
Memo index, 2026
| Date | Re |
|---|---|
| What is settled, and what is not, if funding lapses on December 12No. 001 |