Shutdown Fairness Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
Provides automatic appropriations during federal funding lapses so covered federal employees, service members, and certain contractor workers continue receiving regular compensation, including retroactive treatment for the 2025 shutdown period.
Who Benefits and How
Federal employees, active-duty and reserve service members, and covered contract workers could continue receiving pay and benefits on schedule during shutdowns.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Federal taxpayers would finance automatic shutdown-period compensation, and agencies would need to administer a new automatic pay regime limited to compensation uses.
Key Provisions
- Appropriates whatever sums are necessary during funding lapses to pay covered federal employees and certain contractor workers.
- Applies the regime retroactively to the 2025 shutdown period and prospectively to later lapses.
- Restricts the funds to compensation uses and requires covered workers to perform their typical duties to the maximum extent practicable.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Provides automatic appropriations during federal funding lapses so covered federal employees, service members, and certain contractor workers continue receiving regular compensation, including retroactive treatment for the 2025 shutdown period.
Key Policy Areas
Government Operations, Labor, Defense
Primary Purpose
Provides automatic appropriations during federal funding lapses so covered federal employees, service members, and certain contractor workers continue receiving regular compensation, including retroactive treatment for the 2025 shutdown period.
Policy Domains
Main Provisions
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Federal employees, covered contract workers, and service members affected by funding lapses
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Federal taxpayers financing automatic compensation
- Agencies administering the shutdown compensation system
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedRead the second time and placed on the calendar
Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under …
Mr. Johnson (for himself, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Lankford, …
Introduced in the Senate. Read the first time. Placed on …
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Federal employees and service members affected by a shutdown
Contractors employing covered shutdown-period support workers
Federal taxpayers financing automatic shutdown compensation
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology