What a government shutdown means for IT providers

In case of a government shutdown…don’t panic? That might be hard to do for IT pros who work for the government, either directly or as contractors—but experts suggest there are helpful steps to take during these events.

Every week of the current shutdown could cost the economy $7 billion, according to CBS reporting. The last government shutdown cost the national economy approximately $11 billion and lasted for 34 days, CBS said, sharing data from the Congressional Budget Office.

According to the office of Representative Ami Bera, a California Democrat, during the 2018–2019 shutdown, an estimated 4.1 million people were working under government contracts, “though the exact number of those furloughed is unclear.” The number of IT contractors is unknown, but the Government Accountability Office reported that the government spent approximately $10.2 billion on IT and telecom labor in fiscal year 2023.

Shutdowns can disrupt both contracted work and purchased services from the private sector, including data science, IT infrastructure maintenance, and cybersecurity. Additionally, government contractors face different challenges in the face of a shutdown than federal workers because they do not receive back pay once the government reopens.

Kevin Brancato, the SVP of product strategy at TechnoMile, told IT Brew that during a government shutdown, those contracting IT services to the government can do nothing more than look to win more business.

“That’s basically all they can do, and what they should be attempting to do right now,” Brancato said. “Make sure they’ve got their ears to the ground, listening for where the opportunities are.”

Shutdowns could mean takedowns. Loren DeJonge Schulman, a senior advisor with the Federation of American Scientists, said “any industry that touches the federal government is going to be able to avoid any near-term harm where industries may be able to, through proper training and risk management.” These contractors can also help themselves by thinking through how they might recover financially in the long term from a shutdown.

Schulman pointed to another IT contractor concern when the government shuts down: cyber vulnerabilities. Shuttered government agencies and furloughed cybersecurity pros can make infrastructure more vulnerable to bad actors and threats. While some federal employees may still be working without pay, contractors might not be operating in any official capacity during a shutdown, making things confusing and risky.

“So much of [IT] work is not just day to day, but minute to minute, second to second,” Schulman said. “Those minutes and seconds really matter in terms of the ability to keep track of any potential risk, vulnerabilities, and updates that go on.”

On the other hand…Since non-essential activities are stopped during a shutdown, Brancato said, contractors should have plenty of time to provide mission-critical activities, like IT services that are necessary for security: “There’s no one there calling IT, the support staff because there’s nobody there doing these things because they’re not being worked on.”

Brancato emphasized how, with the pause in operations, contractors have the bandwidth to consider how to approach the broader IT marketplace when the shutdown is over…whenever it’s over.