Even after Speaker Boehner's resignation, we could at some point find ourselves once again hurtling toward a government shutdown. Some congressional members, in both parties, have urged that a shutdown be avoided. Opinion polls reveal a public that clearly opposes a shutdown.
Having coordinated the shutdown for the Department of Defense in 2013, I can only hope that opponents succeed in their opposition to this misguided policy. I know from personal experience that shutting down imposes substantial hidden costs on the government's mission and its employees. Private-sector companies that support the government also incur costs that are not well understood by the public.
For the seventh time since 2010, DoD is planning to shut down. Sadly, in recent years, DoD has become experienced at planning for a shutdown, but the process remains disruptive. Civilian employees must be identified as "excepted" (that is, involved in activities related to maintaining safety of life or protection of property) or "non-excepted." Non-excepted employees must be notified by letter that they will be furloughed in the event of a shutdown.
DoD must also plan to close some facilities and halt non-excepted activities, all while seeking to minimize adverse effects on its mission. Managers must deal with the understandable angst, on the part of both employees and private-sector partners, that accompanies the threat of a shutdown.
I also coordinated DoD's shutdown planning in 2011. That year's shutdown was averted with less than two hours to spare on April 8, a Friday. At the next staff meeting held by the secretary of defense, a senior military leader firmly told me: "Bob, don't ever do that again."
He understood the extensive problems caused by the planning, even if the shutdown itself was averted. Those problems and turmoil are occurring again as DoD plans for another possible 2015 shutdown.
Hidden costs rise sharply if a shutdown occurs. Once it happens, DoD and other agencies are forced to waste taxpayer dollars. During the 2013 shutdown, the department furloughed about 350,000 civilian employees for four days. Furloughed employees were told that any work, even use of their BlackBerries, constituted an illegal activity.
After the shutdown, Congress tacitly acknowledged the obvious: Furloughed employees were in no way responsible for the shutdown and paid them for not working. The wasted funds totaled $400 million just in DoD. The department may be forced to waste similar amounts if a shutdown happens in 2015.
Wasted time represents another hidden cost. Shutdown rules are both arcane and legally binding, and willful violators can even face criminal prosecution. If there is another shutdown in 2015, implementing the rules will consume much of the work time of those DoD managers not on furlough.
DoD will have to carefully handle difficult, emotional issues, ranging from continuing academy athletics (most will have to stop but some are privately funded and could continue) to the lack of authority to pay military death gratuities to families of the fallen.
While activities critical to the department's mission will be accomplished, long-term improvement projects — such as acquisition reform, health care reform and auditability — will inevitably suffer.
DoD industry partners will also face problems. Work on contracts in place prior to the shutdown can generally continue, and contractors can be paid. However, work can be impeded or halted because government employees are furloughed and so cannot oversee contract work. Closure of government facilities may also make it impossible to perform some contract work.
DoD's civilian employees will experience the biggest hidden costs. In 2013, Defense Department civilians lived through back-to-back furloughs. In recent years, civilians have gone three years without a pay raise and listened as some members of Congress criticized them, sometimes using civilian employees as a proxy for a government they believe is too big.
As a result of these various assaults, the morale of government civilian workers has plummeted — down by about 12 percent since 2010, according to recent polls. Another shutdown would surely worsen morale.
Strong political concerns are pushing the government toward a shutdown. But administration and congressional officials need to understand that a shutdown imposes large hidden costs on DoD and all agencies of government. That hidden cost works against much-needed efforts to create a government that functions more effectively, imposing a long-term cost to support a short-term goal.
It's time to shelve the shutdown.
