Skip to main content
CivicGate

S 3001
Introduced Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.

Shutdown Fairness Act

To appropriate funds for pay and allowances of excepted Federal employees, and for other purposes.

Introduced Oct 9, 2025

Latest action (Oct 9, 2025) Read twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations.

Summary

This bill provides emergency federal funding to pay the salaries of "excepted employees" who are required to work during government funding lapses in fiscal years 2026 and beyond. Excepted employees include federal workers designated to perform essential functions during a shutdown, as well as contractors who support them. The emergency funding ends once Congress enacts full appropriations or continuing resolutions for the affected agencies. Any emergency spending is later charged against the regular appropriations once they are enacted. The bill prevents agencies from using emergency funds if regular continuing appropriations are already in effect.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Actions (2)

  1. Oct 9, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations. · senate
  2. Oct 9, 2025 Introduced in Senate

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

October 9, 2025

Mr. Johnson (for himself, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Risch, and Mr. Young) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations

A BILL

To appropriate funds for pay and allowances of excepted Federal employees, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Shutdown Fairness Act”.

SEC. 2. APPROPRIATIONS.

(a) Definitions.—In this section—

(1) the term “agency” means each authority of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States; and

(2) the term “excepted employee”—

(A) means an employee of an agency who the head of that agency determines is an excepted employee or an employee performing emergency work, as those terms are defined by the Office of Personnel Management; and

(B) includes a contractor who—

(i) provides support to an employee described in subparagraph (A); and

(ii) is required to perform work during a lapse in appropriations, as determined by the head of the agency with respect to which the contractor provides support.

(b) Appropriations.—For fiscal year 2026, or any fiscal year thereafter, for any period during which interim or full-year appropriations for that fiscal year are not in effect for an agency, there are appropriated to the head of the agency, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, such sums as are necessary to provide pay and allowances to excepted employees of the agency who are required to perform work during that period.

(c) Termination.—Appropriations and funds made available and authority granted under subsection (b) shall be available to the head of an agency until whichever of the following first occurs:

(1) The enactment into law of appropriations for the agency until the end of the applicable fiscal year (including a continuing appropriation) that provide amounts for the purposes for which amounts are made available under subsection (b).

(2) The enactment into law of appropriations for the agency until the end of the applicable fiscal year (including a continuing appropriation) without any appropriation for such purposes.

(d) Subsequent Lapses.—Appropriations made available under subsection (b) may not be obligated by the head of an agency during any period during which continuing appropriations for the purposes for which amounts are made available under subsection (b) are in effect for the agency.

(e) Charging to Full-Year Appropriations.—Expenditures made by the head of an agency pursuant to subsection (b) shall be charged to the applicable appropriation for the agency whenever a regular appropriation bill or a measure making continuing appropriations until the end of the applicable fiscal year for the agency becomes law. <all>

Comments

Comments

Loading comments…