A TSA screener at Dallas-Fort Worth International will still show up for her shift if the federal government shuts down. She will scan bags, wave travelers through, and go home without a paycheck for the day. A colleague at a federal education office in Austin will be locked out of his email and barred from working at all, and he will not be paid either. And a Postal Service letter carrier on the same San Antonio block will deliver the mail and see her paycheck arrive on schedule, as if nothing happened.
That three-way split is what Texas families face whenever Congress fails to fund the government on time. Texas is home to one of the largest federal workforces of any state, plus hundreds of thousands of contractors, retirees, and benefit recipients tied to Washington’s checkbook. Here is how the pay rules work, who falls into each group, and what Texans in a federal job or contract should be doing before a deadline hits.
Three categories, three very different outcomes
The Office of Personnel Management sorts the federal workforce into three buckets whenever appropriations lapse, and which bucket you land in decides whether you report to work, stay home, or barely notice.
Furloughed employees have jobs funded by annual appropriations and duties not deemed essential to protecting life or property. They are sent home and legally prohibited from working, even from checking a work email. During the 35-day shutdown that ran from December 2018 into January 2019, roughly 380,000 federal employees nationwide were furloughed, according to the Congressional Research Service. They receive no paycheck during the lapse but are guaranteed back pay once funding returns, under the Government Shutdown Pay Fairness Act of 2019 (Public Law 116-1).
Excepted employees have it harder in one way: they must keep showing up. Border Patrol agents along the Texas-Mexico line, air traffic controllers at Houston and DFW, TSA screeners, federal prison guards, and FBI agents are among those whose roles involve safety, law enforcement, or emergency functions. They report for duty but get no paycheck until Congress passes and the president signs new funding. The 2019 back-pay law covers them retroactively, but that guarantee does nothing for a mortgage due on the first.
Exempt employees are least affected because their pay comes from funding that does not depend on the annual appropriations fight: multi-year appropriations, permanent appropriations, or user fees. U.S. Postal Service workers fall here, as do employees of fee-funded operations like the Patent and Trademark Office. Their checks generally keep coming.
Why Texas has so much exposure
Texas carries an outsized share of the federal payroll. The state hosts major military installations, a long border staffed by Customs and Border Protection, large IRS and Social Security operations, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and federal courts and offices in every major metro. You can see the scale of federal money flowing into the state on USAspending.gov’s Texas page, which tracks federal spending, including salaries, by state.
That footprint means a shutdown lands harder here than in many states. When excepted workers go unpaid and furloughed workers go home, the missing paychecks ripple through Texas grocery stores, daycares, and landlords, not just Washington.
Why paychecks stop even though back pay is guaranteed
The gap between guaranteed back pay and actual cash comes down to one statute: the Antideficiency Act (31 U.S.C. sections 1341-1342), which bars agencies from spending money or incurring obligations without an active appropriation. Because cutting a paycheck counts as an obligation, most agency payroll systems cannot issue payments during a lapse, regardless of whether the employee is working.
The Government Accountability Office has documented how the Antideficiency Act governs shutdown operations, and the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has issued binding opinions defining the narrow exceptions that let excepted employees keep working. Everything outside those exceptions stops, and back pay arrives only after new funding is enacted.
Military pay, Social Security, and VA benefits in Texas
Active-duty service members at Fort Cavazos, Fort Bliss, Joint Base San Antonio, and the state’s other installations are in a position similar to excepted civilians: they keep serving but have historically faced delayed pay during shutdowns unless Congress acts. Lawmakers have stepped in before. In 2013, Congress passed the Pay Our Military Act to keep troops paid during that year’s lapse. But there is no permanent law automatically shielding military pay the way the 2019 statute covers civilian back pay, so the protection depends on Congress acting each time.
For the millions of Texans drawing benefits, the news is steadier. Social Security checks, Medicare payments, and veterans’ disability compensation are funded through mandatory spending, not annual discretionary appropriations, and are expected to continue on schedule during a shutdown. The catch is service: offices that process new applications, handle appeals, or answer phones may be short-staffed, so a check that keeps arriving can come alongside longer waits for help.
Contractors get no back-pay guarantee
The 2019 back-pay law covers federal employees. It does not reach the contract workers who clean federal buildings, staff IT desks, provide security, and handle food service across Texas’s federal facilities. Whether a contractor is paid for missed hours depends entirely on their individual contract and on whether the agency and vendor negotiate after funding returns.
During the 2018-2019 shutdown, many contract workers, disproportionately those in lower-wage janitorial, food service, and security roles, received no compensation for lost hours, as The Washington Post reported at the time. Bills to extend back-pay protection to contractors were introduced but never became law. For a Texas household where one spouse holds a federal job and the other works as a government contractor, a shutdown can squeeze both incomes at once, with only one carrying a legal guarantee of recovery.
Members of Congress still get paid
One detail reliably angers people during every shutdown: members of Congress keep their salaries. Congressional pay is a permanent appropriation, and the 27th Amendment prevents any change to congressional compensation from taking effect until after the next election. Some lawmakers voluntarily return or donate their pay during a lapse, but none are required to.
What Texas federal workers should do before a deadline
Workers who have lived through past shutdowns share the same advice: do not wait for Congress. Texas-based federal credit unions have historically offered zero-interest shutdown loans and paycheck advances, so check with your institution now and start the paperwork early. OPM’s furlough guidance notes that employees may be eligible for state unemployment during a lapse, though those benefits must be repaid once back pay arrives; in Texas, you would file with the Texas Workforce Commission.
Thrift Savings Plan account holders can pursue a hardship withdrawal or loan, though both carry tax consequences and should be a last resort. Contacting landlords, mortgage servicers, and utilities before a payment is missed, rather than after, can open the door to temporary forbearance. And union locals such as the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union have historically offered shutdown guidance and emergency aid.
The back-pay guarantee eventually makes federal employees whole on paper. It does not erase the late fees, the credit hits, or the interest on emergency borrowing. For Texas families caught in the gap, the smartest move is to plan for the squeeze before it arrives, not after.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
