FEDERAL MARITIME COMMISSION

PLAN FOR SHUTDOWN DUE TO LAPSE IN APPROPRIATIONS

(Pursuant to section 124.2 of OMB Circular A-11)

This is the Federal Maritime Commission’s (Commission or FMC) plan to shut down should there 

be a lapse in current fiscal year appropriations.

Summary

Lapse Plan Summary Overview

Estimated time (to nearest half day) required to complete shutdown activities: One-half (1/2) day

Total number of agency employees expected to be on board before implementation 

of the plan: 134 

Total number of agency employees expected to be furloughed under the plan 

(unduplicated count): 126

Total number of employees to be retained under the plan for each of the following categories:

Compensation is financed by a resource other than annual appropriations: 0

Necessary to perform activities expressly authorized by law: 0 

Necessary to perform activities necessarily implied by law: 7 

Necessary to the discharge of the President’s constitutional duties and powers: 0 

Necessary to protect life and property: 1 

Brief summary of significant agency activities that will continue during a lapse:

Only activities that are necessary to protect life and property, are necessarily implied by law, and/or 

are necessary to the discharge of the President’s constitutional duties and powers — limited to the 

safe and secure maintenance of agency physical offices and continued communication and 

responsiveness to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and/or the Office of Personnel 

Management (OPM) will be performed. 

Brief summary of significant agency activities that will cease during a lapse:

All work that furthers the agency’s mission to ensure a competitive and reliable international ocean 

transportation supply system that supports the U.S. economy and protects the public from unfair 

and deceptive practices. 

In the absence of appropriations, federal agencies may not incur any obligations that cannot 

lawfully be funded from prior appropriations unless such obligations are otherwise authorized by law. 

Federal agencies may incur obligations as necessary to protect life or property, for the orderly termination 
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of the agency’s functions, and for those functions for which there is express authorization by law to 

continue during a lapse in funding. However, without a continuing source of funding, funds may not be 

disbursed. 

All Commission employees shall be furloughed except when performing any of the above

enumerated functions and activities. Because Commissioners are Presidentially appointed, Senateconfirmed (PAS) Officers of the United States who are paid an annual salary that is not dependent on the 

hours or days they work, they are exempt from furlough because of a shutdown. Accordingly, the 

Commission’s Chairman and its Commissioners may continue to work but will not be paid until funds 

have been appropriated. Similarly, the employees required to perform excepted activities (including 

employees providing legal advice and making decisions on whether certain activities fall within excepted 

activities) will report for duty as necessary to accomplish the excepted activities and will not be paid until 

funds have been appropriated.

Once appropriations have been restored, all employees will be notified to return to work. The 

Managing Director will initiate recall directions via a telephone/personal email tree. Employees also will 

be directed to view OPM and news websites to learn when funds have been appropriated, and to return to 

work on their next regular duty day. If employees have problems returning to work on the day specified, 

flexibilities available to supervisors include allowing telework, adjustments to regular work schedule, or 

the use of annual leave, compensatory time off, or credit hours. 

Estimated Time to Complete Shutdown 

Most of the activities associated with the orderly shutdown of the agency’s operations, including 

securing the agency’s IT infrastructure, its records, and notifying employees of the furlough should take 

no longer than one half-day.

Procedures

The plan contemplates that all employees will report to work on the first workday of a funding 

lapse and will be issued furlough notices via email. Employees may report via telework unless in-person 

shutdown activities are required. Necessary employees will be physically present at the worksite solely to 

engage in shutdown or excepted activities.

All Commission activities are expected to be shut down by 12:00 noon. As with all plans that try to 

anticipate a set of circumstances that may or may not occur, it may be necessary to modify the plan 

depending upon the circumstances.

The plan assumes that certain preparatory work will be done in advance, including the following:

• preparing a press release to be circulated and posted on the FMC website notifying the public 

that the Commission will be closed;

• preparing a notice for the Commission’s electronic filing systems notifying the public that the 

FMC will not accept such filings during a shutdown;

• drafting orders suspending all proceedings;

• processing as much pending priority work as possible;

• arranging for receipt of mail and checks;

• determining which employees will be on leave or on travel and rearranging travel plans, as 

necessary;

• preparing email furlough notices with attachments;
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• taking steps to prepare for the suspension of contractual services (through stop-work notices), 

except those that are deemed essential or those that may continue to be funded with previous 

fiscal year appropriations; and

• advising employees of the possibility of a furlough.

When notified by OMB that a lapse in funding has occurred, the agency head (FMC Chairman or 

designee) shall immediately notify OMB when shutdown activities have been initiated.

All employees will be expected to report to work on the first workday of the funding lapse but will 

only engage in actions necessary to shut down the Commission. These may include, among other things:

• cancelling meetings, hearings, and other scheduled Commission business;

• answering telephones and email inquiries and advising callers of the pending shutdown;

• issuing a press release advising the general public of the shutdown and posting it to the

website;

• serving stay orders to parties to Commission proceedings;

• petitioning courts for suspension or stay of any ongoing litigation;

• securing files, confidential materials, office work papers, and documents;

• issuing stop-work orders to affected contractors;

• documenting the status of projects so that work can be resumed with the least disruption 

possible; and

• recalling employees from travel and advising those on leave that they will be furloughed, etc.

The Managing Director, or the Managing Director’s designee, will issue furlough notices via email. 

Furlough notices will indicate if the employee is excepted for any limited functions. Employees will be 

deemed to have received notice upon issuance of the Managing Director’s email. If for some reason prior 

written notice is not feasible, any reasonable notice is permissible.

Once employees have completed their assigned shutdown tasks and received a furlough notice, they 

will be asked to cease telework or leave the worksite. Employees also will be advised to listen to the 

news media as well as communication from their immediate supervisor through a telephone/personal 

email tree for word of a recall.

As office shutdown functions are completed and employees furloughed, the immediate supervisor 

will notify the bureau or office director that all shutdown activities have been completed and all 

employees have been furloughed. As bureau and office shutdown activities are completed, each bureau 

or office director will report to the Managing Director that all shutdown activities have been completed 

for their program areas. Each bureau or office director whose function has been shut down will be 

furloughed by the Managing Director. The Managing Director will advise the Chairman once shutdown 

activities have been completed and the Commission is closed.

Upon OMB notification that the shutdown has ended, the Managing Director will initiate recall 

directions via a telephone/personal email tree.
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Non-excepted employees will be furloughed as soon as their shutdown activities are complete, which is 

generally expected to be within four working hours of beginning their workday. Employees listed below 

may be retained beyond four hours.

Office of the Chairman: Chief of Staff

Counsel 

Senior Advisor, Legislative / Public Affairs 

Program Support Specialist

Office of the Secretary: Secretary

Office of the Managing Director: Managing Director

Deputy Managing Director

Office of the General Counsel: General Counsel

Office of Consumer Affairs and Director

Dispute Resolution Services:

Office of the Administrative Law Judges: Chief ALJ

Office of Equal Employment Opportunity: Director

Bureau of Trade Analysis: Director

Bureau of Certification and Licensing: Director

Bureau of Enforcement, Investigations, Director

and Compliance:

Office of Enforcement Director

Office of Investigations Director

Office of Compliance Director

Office of Budget and Finance: Chief Financial Officer

Office of Human Resources: Director

Office of Information Technology: Chief Information Officer / Director 

Office of Management Services: Director

Office of the Inspector General: Inspector General
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Disposition of FMC Personnel During a Lapse in Appropriations

As of August 1, 2023, the Commission had 134 employees on board. The Commission has no 

employees that will be retained under its shutdown plan engaged in military, law enforcement, or direct 

provision of health care activities. Most of the Commission’s employees are funded by annual 

appropriations. The Commission does not anticipate having any employees not financed by annual 

appropriations who may be excepted.

The FMC has five (5) presidential appointee positions that are exempt from furlough. All five 

positions are currently filled. As PAS positions, provisions of law provide their exempt classification per 

OPM guidance. 

Eight (8) Commission employees are required to perform excepted activities under the terms of 31 

U.S.C. §§ 1341 et seq. The positions are retained under the plan to perform activities that provide advice 

to the Chairman and Commissioners on the extent to which other activities may or may not be performed 

under statutory exceptions, and to protect property. In unusual circumstances, these employees may be 

retained to discharge the President’s constitutional duties and powers to swear in a political appointee. As 

such, these employees are not subject to furlough for the necessary functions that support these 

requirements. These functions are limited and, in most circumstances, will not require full-time excepted 

status. These Commission employees remain restricted from performing all other non-excepted job 

functions until appropriations are restored. Employees required to perform excepted activities will not be 

paid until funds have been appropriated.

Retained employees are:

Chief of Staff

General Counsel

Managing Director

Deputy Managing Director

Chief Information Officer / Director, OIT

Chief Financial Officer, OBF

Director, OHR

Director, OMS

Approved: August 30, 2023

By: Daniel B. Maffei, Chairman

Federal Maritime Commission