2023 Federal Shutdown Information for Researchers 

This webpage is dynamic and updated frequently. Please check back often.

On September 30, the US House of Representatives approved a bipartisan short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution. The bill, which was approved by the US Senate and signed into law by President Joe Biden, provides the necessary funding to keep the federal government in operation for an additional forty-five days, buying Congress more time to pass long-term funding legislation. As noted in last week’s email, OVPRI is closely monitoring the situation, and will continue to do so. If long-term funding legislation does not pass by November 17, a partial government shutdown may again be a possibility. In that eventuality, OVPRI will continue to update this webpage regarding the shutdown.

Page updated October 4, 2023. 

Federal Shutdown FAQs

This page contains answers to the most frequently asked questions regarding the federal government shutdown's effects on research.

  • Principal investigators (PIs) may continue to incur expenses.  

  • Automatic payments and drawdowns should continue. 

  • PIs may want to check-in with program officers before November 17 if approval is needed for technical matters. Please work with your Sponsored Projects Services post-award team if you need sponsor approval for re-budgeting, extensions, effort changes, etc.   

  • PIs should respect posted grant deadlines and make submittals (but there won’t be any backend help). In some cases, proposals may not be accepted after November 17 until the government resumes operation. 

  • Federal proposal and grant portals may be down. 

  • We recommend if you have proposals due in late November that they are ready to submit by November 16. 

  • No new awards will be made while most staff are furloughed, and requests for help will go unanswered. 

  • No applications are reviewed. 

  • Allow extra time for travel as air traffic control could be affected. 

Resources for Researchers

Included below is a list of agencies that we anticipate will provide guidance on how the shutdown could affect their operations. Please note this list is dynamic and information could be incomplete.  

Although we have not received sponsor-specific guidance on how a potential federal government shutdown may impact submission of new or competing proposal submissions, we anticipate that some agencies will not be available to process these. If you are preparing an application or progress report for an upcoming submission deadline, you should continue to prepare those documents for an on-time submission. However, we encourage you to monitor further updates for specific guidance and the potential for those deadlines to be extended. Guidance communications from the federal agencies generally start a few days before a shutdown, and updates can occur throughout the shutdown.  

Guidance from Federal Agencies Subject to the Partial Shutdown 

  • Federal Agency Contingency Plans across the Federal Government. 
  • OMB Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). 
  • Department of Agriculture (including USDA, including ARS, Forest Service, NIFA) 
  • Department of Commerce (including NIST, NOAA, etc.) 
  • Department of Education 
  • Department of Health and Human Services 
  • Department of Homeland Security 
  • Department of the Interior (including Fish and Wildlife Service) 
  • Department of Justice 
  • Department of State (including USAID) 
  • Department of Transportation 
  • Department of the Treasury 
  • Environmental Protection Agency 
  • NASA 
  • National Endowment for the Arts 
  • National Endowment for the Humanities 
  • National Institutes of Health 
  • National Science Foundation 

Email Updates

Anshuman “AR” Razdan, vice president for research and innovation, sent the following message to UO faculty on September 26, 2023. Important guidance for the UO research community