As the government begins to reopen after the longest shutdown in U.S. history, paychecks for Defense Department civilians who haven’t been paid in over a month are slated to be processed on Sunday, while service members are expected to get paid on time, according to an administration official.

President Trump signed a bill late Wednesday to fund the government through Jan. 30, ending the record 43-day shutdown and clearing the way for tens of thousands of Defense Department civilians to return to work. 

While the administration official told Federal News Network that checks are scheduled to go out on Sunday, DoD civilians are being told to expect payment sometime between Monday and mid-week. 

One DoD civilian told Federal News Network their supervisor said paychecks could “possibly” arrive on Monday, but the organization has yet to receive an official timeline. Civilian employees there were instructed to return to work Thursday after being notified late Wednesday night.

Another DoD civilian told Federal News Network their organization is still waiting on official guidance about when furloughed employees will be reporting back, but as of now they have no official return date. 

Agencies have been told to “take all necessary steps to ensure offices open in a prompt and orderly manner on Nov. 13,” an Air Force Department spokesperson told Federal News Network. 

It is unclear how many civilian employees were furloughed during this shutdown. The Air Force spokesperson said furloughs and exemptions were handled at the local level and the department does not have an aggregated number.

The Army did not provide details on when furloughed employees are expected to return to work or how many employees were furloughed during the shutdown — an Army spokesperson told Federal News Network the service has not yet lifted its communications restrictions.  

The Department of the Navy referred inquiries regarding the return date for civilian employees to the Office of Personnel Management.

OPM said on social media platform X that federal agencies in the Washington, D.C. area are open and that employees are expected to begin the workday on time. “Normal operating procedures are in effect,” the agency said. OPM also issued guidance Wednesday outlining how agencies should handle administering pay, leave and benefits for employees impacted by the lapse in appropriations.

According to the Defense Department’s contingency plan released ahead of the shutdown, about 45% of the department’s civilian workforce was expected to be furloughed.

The department employs roughly 741,500 civilians, according to the contingency plan. Of those, approximately 24% — or about 182,700 — are funded through sources other than the annual appropriations bill. Another 30% — about 223,900 — are designated as “excepted” personnel who continue to work regardless of the lapse in funding. The department estimated that about 334,900 civilian employees would be furloughed in the event of a shutdown.

The legislation Trump signed Wednesday only funds the government through Jan. 30, meaning another shutdown threat is already looming.

Organizations like the National Military Family Association are already urging Congress to revisit legislation such as the “Pay Our Troops Act” introduced just before the shutdown, which would ensure that troops, DoD civilians and Coast Guard members continue to receive pay and benefits in the event of a shutdown. It would also prevent future eleventh-hour attempts to ensure service members are paid on time — during this shutdown, the administration drew heavily from several accounts, including the research and development and procurement accounts, to cover military pay. At some point, DoD received a donation from a private donor to fund military salaries. 

David Super, the Carmack Waterhouse professor of law and economics at Georgetown University Law Center, said that the department could also ask Congress to forward fund military pay in the future or even current budget requests.

“That’s done for some accounts that we don’t want to have interrupted. Instead of paying it fiscal year by fiscal year, they could pay it calendar year by calendar year, so that there would still be money for the next three months to cover it — that’s a perfectly sensible thing. To the best of my knowledge, neither this administration or its predecessors have proposed that that would be a good idea,” Super told Federal News Network.

The bill also includes full-year funding for military construction, the departments of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and Congress. The $153 billion measure would provide $19.7 billion for Pentagon construction and family housing programs.

If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email anastasia.obis@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at (301) 830-2747.

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