New DHS Shutdown Plan Keeps Nearly All of CBP Working
The Department of Homeland Security posted a revised shutdown contingency plan over the weekend, and, although the plan says that responding to correspondence, long-term project management and developing products for programs that are in the works are not to happen during a shutdown, the only offices in CBP that are mentioned as having non-essential workers are the Office of the Chief Counsel and those who work in labor relations.
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More than 93% of CBP's 67,792 workers are to stay at work in the case of a shutdown, the plan says. That's 63,243 employees, up from 60,971 listed as exempt in a shutdown plan DHS released in March (see 2509240053).
Because CBP was the recipient of funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill, thousands of the employees who stay on the job will likely continue to be paid out of that funding. CBP received $170 billion over four years in the law, but that is all for immigration. However, CBP has a variety of trade and travel user fees, which also can be used to pay salaries.