February 9, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Some Army civilians worked during the shutdown—and were told to say they didn’t
What started as confusion became a coverup, employees and emails say.
File photo of U.S. Army Installation Management Command headquarters at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Erich Schlegel/Getty Images Some Army civilian employees who were supposed to be furloughed during the recent shutdown went to work anyway, then were instructed to fill out time cards stating that they had not.
Now the workers fear that this violated standard procedures and forced them to break the law.When a shutdown looms, government agencies typically tell each employee whether they are “excepted/exempted”—that is, allowed to work during the lapse in annual appropriations—or “non-excepted,” and therefore barred from working.In an email to staff on Monday, Feb. 2—the first weekday of the four-day shutdown—the Army’s Installation Management Command told its employees via email to proceed with “normal operations,” adding that “all command battle rhythm events will occur as scheduled.” The email said that Army headquarters had issued no formal guidance for the shutdown, and therefore employees should continue conducting their normal work. That struck at least some staff as a violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act, the law that restricts federal spending to only what Congress appropriates.“I don’t know how anyone in the Army can have non-excepted employees currently work with no appropriation,” said one IMCOM employee who was slated to be furloughed but who was told to work anyway.