Office of Inspector General
Shutdown Plan in the Absence of Appropriations
The Office of Inspector General's (OIG) mission is to promote economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and integrity in the delivery of United States Department of Agriculture’s (UDSA) programs. OIG auditors, investigators, and other staff work toward four primary goals:
1.	Strengthen USDA’s ability to implement safety and security measures to protect the public health as well as agricultural and Department resources.
2.	Reduce program vulnerabilities and strengthen program integrity in the delivery of benefits to individuals.
3.	Support USDA in implementing its management improvement initiatives.
4.	Increase the efficiency and effectiveness with which USDA manages and exercises stewardship over natural resources.
Based on its mission, and the varied nature of current OIG funding sources, OIG has identified those limited categories of functions and activities that would be essential to operations during any Government shutdown. Described in detail below, those categories are: (1) certain criminal investigations, the suspension of which would adversely affect the safety of life or property; (2) work funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA); and (3) management and operations activities needed to support these functions.
This document describes how these functions would be carried out during a shutdown and the procedures to be used to inform excepted employees and implement a shutdown due to a lapse of appropriations.
Implementation of Shutdown
I.	Identifying employees excepted status (Excepted/Nonexcepted)
A.	Excepted Employees (Excepted from Shutdown)
1.	Certain criminal investigators working on ongoing criminal investigation activities to protect life or property, including but not limited to undercover operations, testifying in court, serving warrants, making arrests, or serving on joint efforts with other Federal and/or State law enforcement agencies. Minimal investigative staff as necessary to support these activities will also be maintained.
2.	Certain auditors, investigators, and support staff working on ARRA funded audits and investigations.
3.	Certain individuals performing management and operations activities necessary to these essential functions, including the Inspector General (IG), Deputy Inspector General (DIG), the IG’s Staff Assistant, and key senior officials (the Assistant Inspector Generals [AIG] for Audit, Investigations and Management, and Counsel to the IG); and Office of Management Operational Team consisting of the Directors of Financial Management Division and Human Resources Management Division, and the Director and Deputy Director of Information Technology Division.
B.	Non-Excepted Employees
1.	IG’s Staff – All personnel except those directly assisting or supporting the functions and activities as identified above.
2.	Audit – All personnel except those directly assisting or supporting exempted criminal investigations or involved in ARRA work as identified above.
3.	Investigations – All personnel except those directly assisting or supporting exempted criminal investigations or involved in ARRA work as identified above.
4.	Office of Management – All personnel except those specifically listed elsewhere in this document as necessary to support the functions and activities as identified above.
5.	OIG Staff – All personnel working under reimbursable agreements.
II.	Shutdown Procedures
A.	Initial Notification to employees and contractors that a shutdown appears likely will take place on Friday, April 8, 2011, via computer notification, fax, and/or telephone. OIG has already planned that all employees on travel will return to their duty stations by April 8, 2011, unless their travel is in support of the limited essential or ARRA supported OIG work excepted from the shutdown.
B.	Official Notification and Implementation will take place on April 11, 2011. Employees will receive an SF-52 documenting their status during the shutdown and a letter explaining their rights and responsibilities during the shutdown.
C.	Field: Regional Inspector General for Audit (RIGA)/Assistant Regional Inspector General for Audit (ARIGA) and Special Agent in Charge (SAC)/Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) will notify affected (excepted) employees in travel or training status on Friday, April 08, 2011, that:
1.	All training shall stop and the employee shall return to duty station; and
2.	All travel will stop except travel that is in support of exempt criminal investigative activities and ARRA oversight.
D.	Headquarters (including employees located in the regions but officially assigned to headquarters, i.e., Regional Administrative Officers); AIGs/Deputy AIGs, Directors, Program Managers, and other supervisory employees will notify affected (excepted) employees in travel or training status as of Friday April 8, 2011, that:
1.	All training shall stop and the employee shall return to duty station; and
2.	All travel will stop except travel that is in support of exempt criminal investigative activities and ARRA oversight.
E.	Employees on leave will be notified of the change in their leave status, returned to duty, and placed in nonpay furlough status.
F.	Employees with approved leave during the time of the shutdown should be informed that they will be returned to duty, placed in a nonpay furlough status, and their approved leave will be returned to the employee’s leave account.
G.	Per USDA guidance, excepted employees will report to their supervisors at their regular start time on April 11, 2011, to receive assignment of duties to complete the shutdown and to be formally furloughed and advised of their rights, responsibilities, and/or benefits. For those employees on prescheduled telework, “reporting” may be done by telephone. Employees will receive an SF-52 documenting their status during the shutdown and a letter explaining their rights and responsibilities during the shutdown.
H.	Each OIG manager is responsible for ensuring that each of his/her direct reports is aware of the shutdown and has been given the documentation (SF-52 and Letter of Information) appropriate to the employee’s status under the shutdown. The Human Resources Management Division is responsible for preparing the appropriate SF-52s and Letter of Information and providing them to the OIG managers and supervisors as early in the day of April 11, 2011, as possible.
I.	Contracting Officers in the Office of Management will notify contractors of the shutdown. OIG has not identified any of the current contractors as essential to OIG’s operations during a shutdown except contractors currently working on ARRA audits.
J.	All official OIG or USDA records, personal property, real property, and facilities within OIG’s control and custody will be maintained and protected until appropriate disposition is accomplished.
K.	When it is determined that an excepted employee is no longer needed to perform exempted law enforcement activities, ARRA oversight or other essential functions, the employee will be notified and placed in a nonpay furlough status.
L.	Certain employees, whose function may prove to be excepted, will be placed in an “on call” status while furloughed. “On call” shall mean they may be contacted to return to duty to support the excepted functions and activities of OIG. If requested to return to duty, employees will be notified by their supervisor or manager by phone call/email. These employees must return any contact by their supervisor or manager within two (2) hours and, if requested, be available to return to duty as soon as possible. If they are requested to return to duty, their furlough notice will be corrected to reflect the dates during which they are not in a furlough status.
All other employees will be instructed to listen to the news about times for returning to work. If necessary, any other emergency contact will be done following OIG’s COOP procedures.
M.	IT Operations
If OIG ITD was asked to perform a complete shutdown of all systems during a long-term furlough, it would require the following activities and time:
1.	HQ – It would take 2 FTE ITD staff 8 hours each day to safely and securely shut down all IT appliances and servers in HQ.
2.	KC – It would take 1 FTE ITD staff 8 hours to safely and securely shut down all IT appliances and servers in KC.
3.	RO – The FTE in KC would also be responsible for securely shutting down file servers in the 6 regional offices.

Office of Inspector General
Employees Excepted from Shutdown
(As of April 8, 2011)
1.	IG’s Staff
Immediate Office
Inspector General
Deputy Inspector General
Staff Assistant to the IG

Office of Counsel
Counsel to the Inspector General

On Call
Special Assistant to the IG for ARRA
Director of Office of Compliance and Integrity
Directory of Diversity and Conflict Resolution
Staff Assistant to the Deputy IG
Office of Counsel attorneys needed to process subpoenas and assist in criminal investigations or audits as set forth in I.A. 1 and 2 of the shutdown plan.
2.	Investigations
Assistant Inspector General for Investigations
Criminal investigators and support staff working on ongoing criminal investigation activities to protect life or property, including but not limited to undercover operations, testifying in court, serving warrants, making arrests, or serving on joint efforts with other Federal and/or State law enforcement agencies. Minimal investigative staff as necessary to support these activities will also be maintained.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES IN THE EVENT OF A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN


 
		Estimated Employment by Category	   
Agency 	Current On-Board Staff	I	II	III
2nd Half Day One	III
Day 2	III
Day 5	Total After Day 5		Total % of Staff After Day 5	   
Office of Inspector General	621	20	116	10	10	10	146		24%	 

KEY:
Category I: Military, Law Enforcement, and Direct Provision of Health
Category II: Financed from Available Funds
Category II: Protect Life and Property


Summary of Category I Activities
Criminal investigators and support staff working on ongoing criminal investigation activities to protect life or property, including but not limited to undercover operations, testifying in court, serving warrants, making arrests, or serving on joint efforts with other Federal and/or State law enforcement agencies. Minimal investigative staff as necessary to support these activities will also be maintained.
Summary of Category II Activities:
OIG received multi-year funding for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that covers FY2009 through FY2013. At the end of February, there was an available balance of $6.9 million. Certain auditors, investigators, and support staff working on ARRA-funded audits and investigations will be maintained to complete some of these tasks.

Summary of Category III Activities:
Essential Personnel needed to support the activities in Categories I and II. Office of Counsel attorneys needed to process subpoenas and assist in criminal investigations or audits as set forth in Categories I and II above. Includes certain individuals performing management and operations activities necessary to these essential functions, including the Inspector General (IG), Deputy Inspector General (DIG), the IG’s Staff Assistant, and key senior officials (the Assistant to the IG); and Office of Management Operational Team consisting of the Directors of the Financial Management Division and Human Resources Management Division, and the Director and Deputy Director of Information Technology Division.


OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ECONOMIST
Climate Change Program Office
Office of Energy Policy and New Uses
Office of Environmental Markets
Office of Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis
World Agricultural Outlook Board

Shutdown Plan

The purpose of this plan is to prescribe the actions to be followed by the Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) for an orderly closedown of the organization in the event of a lack of appropriations to permit continuation of programs.

OCE includes all staff assigned to the immediate Office of the Chief Economist, Climate Change Program Office, Office of Energy Policy and New Uses, Office of Environmental Markets, Office of Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis, and the World Agricultural Outlook Board.

Actions to close down OCE include the following:
1.	All employees will be directed to report to their supervisors to receive assignments of duties or other pertinent information for an orderly closedown. For those teleworking, “report” may be done by telephone.
2.	Contracting officers will notify contractors of their operating status.
3.	All records, personal property, real property, and facilities will be maintained and protected until appropriate disposition is accomplished.
4.	When it is determined that an employee is no longer needed to perform activities to accomplish the orderly closedown, the employee(s) will be notified and placed on furlough or other personnel action as appropriate.
5.	As employees are about to be released, the employee should complete timesheet entry, and submit to approving authority. Timesheet will be submitted by master Timekeepers at the appropriate time.
6.	Recurring implementation status reports will be provided to agency administrator.
7.	Other instructions and specific guidance will be issued as circumstances require at each occurrence of a potential closedown situation.

No activities of OCE involve law enforcement, health, safety, life, or property. OCE has no funds available to finance activities other than appropriations. Consequently, no OCE employees are considered exigency employees. The Chief Economist will be on call to report to work as needed.

Office of the Chief Economist, February 24, 2011

April 8, 2011

SUBJECT:	Plan for Emergency Shutdown

TO:		Mike Young, Director
		Office of Budget and Program Analysis

Attached is the office of Communications (OC) emergency shutdown plan of action that I am prepared to implement, should there be an interruption of fund availability due to budget appropriations not being approved.

All employees – 72 total, 71 of which are exempted – will be asked to come to work for at least the first half day after which only the essential employees will report. The following is a list of the things the Office of Communications will have to do to shut down:

Change voice mail message;
Activate auto reply in email system and add message;
Add notation to website and work with agencies to do the same; and
Distribute instructions to all employees for shutting down communications.

The Office of Communications (OC) has one essential employee, the Director of Communications. In the event of the shutdown, she will be available should the Secretary need communications assistance.

Additional questions or concerns about this matter should be directed to me, Chris Mather, Director of Communications, Room 402-A. The telephone number is 202-720-4623.

Chris Mather
Director, Office of Communications


OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
SHUTDOWN IN THE ABSENCE OF APPROPRIATIONS

This document describes the plan for shutdown of agency activities in the event of late appropriations or other similar situations requiring the discharge of all employees except those conducting essential activities.

Actions
All employees will be directed to report to their supervisors to receive assignments of duties or other pertinent information for an orderly closedown. For those teleworking, “report” may be done by telephone.

Contracting officers will notify contractors of their operating status.

All records, personal property, real property, and facilities will be maintained and protected until appropriate disposition is accomplished.

When it is determined that an employee is no longer needed to perform activities to accomplish the orderly closedown, the employee(s) will be notified and placed on furlough or other personnel action as appropriate.

As employees are about to be released, the employee should complete timesheet entry, and submit to approving authority. Timesheet will be submitted by master Timekeepers at the appropriate time.

Recurring implementation status reports will be provided to agency administrator.

Other instructions and specific guidance will be issued as circumstances require at each occurrence of a potential closedown situation.

Program Impact
No press release generated nor contact with the media; therefore, the media will not have access to USDA data, information, and/or personnel. Information on USDA policies and programs will not be available to the public.

Printing will stop, thus valuable agricultural reports and information materials will not be available to the agricultural economic community and the agriculture and consumer publics.

Visual production services will stop, which is the only other avenue for communication with the media, agriculture, and consumer publics. Television and radio transmission will also be stopped.

Requests for information and publications that provide advice and assistance to the public will not be processed.

Public and media liaison with organizations, groups, and individuals will cease; thereby preventing this office from providing responses to requests for clarification and information on national agricultural policies and programs that ultimately impact on the agricultural economy and general well-being of the action.

The following is a list of services that will not be provided in the event of a shutdown:
a.	Policy guidance and direction on public affairs issues and programs
b.	USDA press releases and reports
c.	Teleconferencing and video production
d.	Design Services
e.	Photographic Services
f.	Radio and television transmissions
g.	Printing Services
h.	Publications and information distribution
i.	Ag News Services

National Appeals Division -- Furlough Plans in the Absence of Appropriations

The following plan addresses close down procedures in the absence of appropriations. This plan assumes that no National Appeals Division (NAD) activities will continue in the absence of appropriations. Although no NAD activities will continue, for the purposes of this plan, the following employees are excepted. If the furlough is extended beyond the identified time period, excepted personnel will cancel appropriate upcoming hearing activities. For the purpose of this plan, during the furlough, excepted employees will only report to complete limited essential administrative tasks for a prescribed time period.

Excepted Employees:
Regional Assistant Directors
The NAD Director
The Special Assistant to the Director
The NAD COOP coordinator

Non -excepted employees include:

Non-excepted employees
All Hearing Officers
All Review Officers
All Regional Office Staff (except as listed above as Emergency Employees)
All National Office Staff (except as listed above as Emergency Employees)

We estimate it will take NAD four hours to complete orderly close down procedures.

Concept of the Operation

Prior to Day 1, the following actions will be completed.

The NAD Director, Deputy Directors, Special Assistant, and the Regional Assistant Directors will identify those functions that need to be performed that are solely associated with an orderly interruption of normal activities. Such functions may include but are not limited to the following:

Identifying measures to secure records, personal property, real property, and facilities that will be maintained and protected until appropriate disposition is accomplished.
Drafting communication strategy for communicating with NAD employees.
Drafting communication strategy for making contacts outside NAD that is necessary to communicate our status.
Identify all potential meetings, hearings, travel and other previously arranged NAD business that may need to be cancelled.
Identify all non-excepted employees and ensure that employees have been identified consistently and fairly in compliance with applicable personnel regulations.
Identify employees whose presence at work will be required to perform functions associated with the orderly cessation of program activities. This includes employee name, title and function the employee will perform.
Identify what information technology systems support is needed to maintain essential services and information technology infrastructure.
Identify all employees in travel status.
Identify what instructions and procedures NFC personnel will provide to employees for the close down period.
Identify appropriate Department contacts for communications purposes and orderly close down of the agency.
Inform and include the Union in pre-planning and during shutdown bargaining over furlough related topics.
Plan for Initial notification: Park Center will provide the initial notification that NAD expects an upcoming absence of appropriations. The notification will define the time period to prepare for furlough implementation. (For the remainder of the plan, the term "time period" will refer to the precise dates identified in the initial notification.)  In that notification, NAD will ask employees to make final preparations to implement the following furlough activities:

Ø	Appropriate regional administrative staff will print out NADTrack schedules of hearing activities (prehearings, hearings and determinations) scheduled for the time period.
Ø	Employees will begin to secure property in their offices.
Ø	Depending on the dates of anticipated furlough, appropriate personnel will complete T&A activities as described in the initial notification instructions.
Ø	Appropriate personnel will submit and approve all GovTrip actions.
Ø	COOP Plan coordinator will verify the phone tree in order to bring employees back to operating status, when appropriate.
Ø	Supervisors will ensure furloughed employees are advised of their benefits and rights. Employees with TSP loans will review basic agreements for non-pay status during the furlough and also when returning to pay status.
Ø	Supervisors will ensure all training and travel has stopped and that no leave is approved for the time period.
Ø	NAD COTRs will contact contractors to implement stop work activities.

1.	First half of Day 1:  In the absence of continuing appropriations, the following steps will occur:
All employees shall be directed to report to work and receive instructions to shut down their activities. Non-excepted employees as discussed herein will be released on furlough by mid-day of their workday.
Hearing officers will notify appellants about cancelling prehearings and/or hearings scheduled within the identified timeframe.
Hearing officers will email their Regional Directors with appellant contact information for prehearings and/or hearings scheduled beyond the identified timeframe.
Regional office staff and hearing officers will advise Postal Service and FedEx not to deliver until notified to resume deliveries.
Employees will set up the voicemail extended absence greeting and email out of office automatic reply for the identified timeframe. Employees will cease answering office phones and travelling to the Post Office during the furlough.
Contact any employees on leave and communicate that their leave is cancelled.
Contact any employees in travel status and direct to return to duty station.
Ensure all employees to be released complete timesheet entry and submit to approving official.
Delay any employee transfer of station.
Ensure all records, personal property and real property are secured.
Validate existing communication strategy and employee contact information for future communication need.

2.	Second half of Day 1:
Managers and supervisors will finalize the coordination of all activities above with intent to terminate NAD operations.

3.	Day 2 until end of furlough time period: NAD will be closed down.

4.	End of Furlough Activities (Call-Backs): The COOP coordinator will implement phone tree procedures to inform staff when they should return to operating status.