Multiple federal agencies have told their employees to report to work Thursday, according to three administration officials. The directive came before President Donald Trump signed a short-term funding bill Wednesday night.
Government workers at the Health and Human Services, Justice, Interior, and Housing and Urban Development departments were all advised to come in Thursday, regardless of when the measure was signed.
One of the emails referred to the funding lapse as the “Democratic shutdown,” continuing a trend of partisan language on display from various agencies leading up to and during the government’s closure.
State Department employees also were told to return to work Thursday in an email Wednesday night that referred to passage of the short-term government funding bill, known on Capitol Hill as a continuing resolution, or CR, earlier in the evening.
“Now that a CR has been enacted, we can all continue the critical work of advancing our national interests on behalf of the American people,” an undersecretary for management at the department, Jason S. Evans, wrote in email obtained by NBC News. “We look forward to all our people returning to work expeditiously on your next scheduled workday.”
The Republican-controlled House on Wednesday night approved legislation in a 222 to 209 vote to reopen the government after 43 days, the longest shutdown in American history. Six Democrats joined nearly all Republicans in favor of the measure, while two Republicans joined a vast majority of Democrats in opposing it.
The bill reinstates thousands of government employees who were laid off during the shutdown which began Oct. 1, secures back pay, and protects against additional reductions-in-force through the end of January.
It’s unclear when exactly furloughed workers will get their back pay or how fast paychecks might resume, but the White House has urged federal agencies to send paychecks out "expeditiously and accurately," a senior administration official said.
NBC News has reached out to the Office of Management and Budget for details.
Health and Human Services employees were told the agency would try to get furloughed employees paychecks with back pay on or before Nov. 21, according to an email obtained by NBC News.
The email to State Department employees included a link to frequently asked questions on returning to work and an update on issues related to backpay and bidding for their next positions and overseas posts.
The senior administration official said the White House was projecting that employees at some agencies, including the General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management and the departments of Energy, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs, would get their checks as soon as this weekend.
Other departments, including Education, State, Interior, Transportation and some agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and the Social Security Administration, could get their backpay by Monday, the official said. Still others, including Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Treasury and DOJ, could receive their checks by the middle of next week, the official said.
The shutdown's effect on air travel, meanwhile, is expected to ease, although the timeline for that is unclear; the Federal Aviation Administration announced flight cancellations will be capped at 6% rather than 10% as the agency assesses a return to full operations.
The Smithsonian, too, has announced it will reopen several museums tomorrow, including the Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum, and its annex in Virginia, which houses planes and space artifacts.
Other museums and the National Zoo are set to reopen on a “rolling basis by Monday,” the Smithsonian’s website said.
