The Department of Homeland Security ordered thousands of furloughed employees back to work in internal emails this week, extending pay and duty status across agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
In an April 10 notice, La'Toya Prieur told staff that all DHS employees were being returned to a work and paid status. A separate message to FEMA personnel said all FEMA employees would be placed in exempt status and were expected to report in person to their normal duty station.
The move matters because DHS is treating the workers' roles as advancing the purpose of available appropriations, allowing them to resume normal duties despite the funding gap. The department also said it is using available funds to ensure employees are paid, even as it warned staff this week that they would not be paid again until the congressional impasse over funding the agency ends.
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The shutdown began on Feb. 14, and the shift in policy came after a presidential memorandum on April 3 directed DHS to find a way to provide back pay for workers since the start of the lapse. More than 35,000 DHS employees began receiving paychecks last Friday, giving the department a partial answer to a problem that had left thousands in limbo for weeks.
Historically, federal workers caught in a funding lapse are split into two groups: excepted employees keep working, usually without pay, while non-excepted staff are furloughed and barred from doing their jobs. DHS's new guidance upends that pattern by telling employees they are back in work and paid status, but it does not solve the broader funding fight. The department said future checks for DHS employees outside law enforcement officials depend on lawmakers, and the timeline for a deal on Capitol Hill remains unclear.
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Sen. Markwayne Mullin said Monday that the majority of DHS employees would be paid by then, but he also described the action as limited. “Going forward, we've got to wait on Congress. This was kind of a rifle shot,” he said. The answer to the headline question is yes: DHS furloughed employees recalled are being brought back and paid now, but only until the money and the political standoff run out.
