A number of you have been speculating about what would happen if Congress and the President cannot work out an agreeable budget for the rest of the fiscal year and annual appropriations lapse. Specifically, you have been wondering about the status of this year’s PMF job fair. Today, OPM has released some information that you may find interesting, although it doubtless will not set your mind at ease.
Most of OPM operates on funds that are not annually appropriated by Congress, so in the event of a funding lapse, a good deal of OPM will still operate, at least for a while. In the event of a prolonged lapse, a number of these operations may cease if they ran out of money. The Presidential Management Fellows Program Office operates from non-appropriated funds and would be able to continue operations. However, if no budget is in place prior to the PMF job fair, the job fair will have to be postponed, since many of the agencies who would have attended would themselves be furloughed. So this is the answer to how the looming government shutdown will affect you: it depends, but only on the duration of the shutdown.
I wanted to provide this information as soon as I came across it just to make you all aware. For more information about what I just discussed, visit OPM’s special page at http://www.opm.gov/furlough/opm/
It’s official
The PMF Class of 2011 Finalists Job Fair (April 19-21, 2011) and PMF Class of 2008 Graduation Ceremony (April 20, 2011) will take place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, in Washington, DC. We are in the process of updating all event files and content on the PMF website. The 2011 Finalists have until Noon (EST) Friday, to RSVP, and 2008 Fellows have until Noon (EST), Wednesday to RSVP.