Hours before the House was expected to vote on a bill that would fend the government shutdown, at least two major federal agencies were offering guidance to employees about returning to work.
The Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday directed its employees to plan to report to work on Thursday morning if legislation to fund the government passed later Wednesday night, or even early Thursday morning.
“Please monitor the news closely and be prepared to return to work if Congress passes the appropriations bill this evening,” the agency wrote in a departmentwide email Wednesday afternoon, obtained by The New York Times.
The Department of Interior sent a similar email, which was shared with The Times.
The House was debating the bill on Wednesday evening and was expected to vote on it before adjourning.
The email said the department was “hopeful that the Democrat-led government shutdown may conclude today,” invoking partisan language that has been a staple of Trump administration communications during the shutdown, the longest in history.
Questions about when federal workers would be expected to return to the office once the government reopens have been circulating on social media and chat rooms.
For the most part, furloughed workers were not allowed to log into the agency systems during the shutdown. As a result, many do not know how much work is waiting for them when they go back after being out for 43 days.
An employee with Housing and Urban Development said that thousands of workers are expected to have to reset their passwords when the government reopens because many of the agency’s systems time out if they haven’t been logged into for more than 30 days.
The employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, said many workers will spend their first day back at the office on hold with the I.T. department. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Maxine Joselow contributed reporting.
Robert Jimison covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on defense issues and foreign policy.
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