Federal Shutdown FAQs

The Council on Government Relations and the Associations of Public Land Grant Universities are both maintaining active repositories of updated Agency Guidance and other resources. 

Following contingency plans from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), all non-essential federal operations will cease until funding is restored. This shutdown impacts most agencies that fund research, education, and training. As a result, many federal staff will be unavailable to process awards, respond to inquiries, or issue payments. Furthermore, agency websites may not be updated or could become unavailable.

Yes, most ongoing, federally sponsored research can continue in the short-term, provided the award funding has already been received by the university and your work does not depend on federal staff, facilities, or resources that are unavailable during the shutdown. 

If your project is impacted, we will contact you directly.

If you have a question or a concern that is not covered here, please reach out to Dawn Boatman directly.

Yes. Sponsored Project Administration (SPA) will continue to prepare proposals for submission. However, the primary challenge is that federal submission portals may be unavailable or unresponsive, and proposals may not be accepted until the shutdown ends. Even if a proposal can be submitted successfully, most agencies will not review or process it until normal operations resume.

Reach out to your program officer at the appropriate federal agency to confirm their guidance and the next steps for your proposal.

Keep SPA Informed: Please copy the SPA Proposals Team (spa_proposals@pdx.edu) on any correspondence you have with the funding agency regarding your pending or planned submission

Yes, if your active project is not dependent on access to federal staff, sites, or data, and the university has already received the award funding, you may continue your work.

Crucially, you must not exceed the awarded amounts or the designated period of performance. The university cannot guarantee reimbursement for such overages, which would become the responsibility of your department or college.

Access to federal facilities will be extremely limited, and most research conducted on federal sites will be impacted. The majority of federal agency staff will not be working and will be unavailable for inquiries or collaboration until the shutdown ends.

Yes, this is a critical distinction. While most of our sponsored programs are grants or cooperative agreements, some federal contracts may be immediately impacted by a shutdown. Certain contracts will receive a "Stop Work Order," which, with limited exceptions, requires the immediate cessation of all project work and all related expenses.

If you receive a Stop Work Order from your contracting officer, you are required to forward it immediately to the SPA Awards Team at awards@pdx.edu. SPA will be in direct contact with any Principal Investigators (PIs) who receive such an order.

PIs should continue to meet all reporting requirements to the best of their ability. Agency websites will likely remain active and able to accept the submission of these reports.

New federal awards from impacted agencies will not be issued or processed during the shutdown. While the university will continue to review and process awards internally where possible, no new awards from the government will be finalized until operations resume.

Federal agencies will not process future funding increments during a shutdown. If you are anticipating an additional year of funding or another funding increment and have not yet received an award authorizing the additional funds, please contact the SPA Post-Award Team (spa_postaward@pdx.edu) to determine the appropriate next steps for your project.

No. Federal agencies will not process administrative requests such as no-cost extensions or supplemental funding during the shutdown.