Note: This story has been updated on Nov. 7 to reflect new information about budget negotiations.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the question on everyone\u2019s mind: will the government <\/a>avert a second shutdown threat this month?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the risk of a shutdown is a near-annual fixture of government work and many seasoned federal employees say they won\u2019t worry about it until it happens, a shutdown, even a partial one, affects hundreds of thousands of federal workers who could stop getting paid on a dime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Office of Personnel Management has acknowledged that an agency will have \u201cvery little to no lead time\u201d to implement a shutdown furlough.<\/a> While agencies do have plans in place ahead of time, employees may not know whether they\u2019ll be triggered until the last day of the government fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So there\u2019s not much to do at this point except wait. The current continuing resolution<\/a> that has been keeping the government open expires on Nov. 17. If lawmakers fail to extend the extension or pass a full 2024 budget by then, all non-funded and non-essential government programs would halt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That includes things like military training, Defense Department family support programs, National Park Service access and processing of immigration documents and passport requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to past stalemates, Congress in recent years has approved year-ahead advance appropriations to certain departments to ensure that future partisan budget fights<\/a> don\u2019t completely shut down all federal government operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\t