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Guiding the UTIA Community During the Partial Federal Shutdown

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What You Need to Know

The United States government entered a partial shutdown beginning 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, January 31, 2026.

Only these agencies are affected by the shutdown:

  • Defense Department
  • State Department
  • Department of Labor
  • Department of Health and Human Services
  • Department of Education
  • Department of Transportation
  • Department of Housing and Urban Development
  • Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service

Work on existing federal grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts for affected agencies should continue as planned. However, principal investigators (PIs) should consider delaying large purchases, if it is feasible to do so.

Resources

Council on Government Relations (COGR) has provided some updated resources for the potential shutdown.

While we anticipate that affected federal agencies will initiate unique contingency plans, the UTIA community should expect that:

  • Proposal deadline dates will likely remain unchanged. Grants.gov proposals can still be submitted by their original deadlines.
  • The proposal review process is likely to be delayed.
  • Federal staff at affected agencies will not be working. Inquiries about upcoming deadlines, proposal preparation and applications, or actions requiring prior approval will likely go unanswered until the shutdown is resolved.
  • Affected agencies are likely to be prohibited from issuing new grants/contracts or amendments, including those for continuing funding increments, supplements, or no-cost time extensions requiring explicit agency approval.

What You Need to Do

Previous shutdowns have fortunately had minimal impacts on UTIA operations, in part due to proactive steps taken by faculty, staff, and administrators.

  • Keep Working. If you are preparing a proposal, continue working toward the sponsor’s original deadline. At present, affected federal agencies have given no indication that proposal deadline dates will be extended or changed. Postponing work until the shutdown ends may cause you to miss your deadline.
    • Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) staff are monitoring deadlines and will contact individual PIs of deadline changes or submission system shutdowns.
    • If you receive notification of a postponed deadline, please contact your OSP Proposal Coordinator or aggrant@utk.edu.
  • Submit Your Proposal. OSP plans to review and submit proposals, as permitted by the sponsor. For example, in previous shutdowns, proposals could be submitted normally via Grants.gov and were simply held in queue and processed after the shutdown ended, while other agencies with web-based portals shut down their websites, so no proposals could be submitted. 
  • Report Stop Work Orders Immediately. Stop work orders are not expected, however, because they effectively end or suspend work, costs associated with any work conducted after the notification will not be reimbursed. If needed, OSP can provide guidance to departments on how to temporarily cover costs related to payroll interruptions.
    • OSP staff will immediately forward any stop work orders received to the affected PIs.
    • o If you receive a stop work order or any other notice about the effect of the shutdown on your project or any related guidance from your sponsor, you should immediately notify the Office of Sponsored Programs (aggrant@utk.edu or 865-974-7357).
  • Funding Availability May Continue. During previous shutdowns, most agencies continued to allow automatic drawdown of funds. Provided the shutdown is not lengthy, we may not experience interruptions to funding availability. The Payment Management Services (PMS) system is expected to remain operational to ensure delivery of grant payments for some programs. Sponsored Projects Accounting (SPA) will monitor the federal drawn down system status.
  • Meet Your Award Deadlines. If you have a report or other deliverable due to your sponsor, continue working toward the sponsor’s original deadline. Submit your reports on time, if permitted by your sponsor.
  • Expect Delays in New Awards. New awards are likely to be delayed until after the shutdown is over. Be cautious about spending funds before an award document is received. All expenditures must occur in the period of performance, which is unknown until the award document is received.
  • Expect Delays in Routine Post-Award Administration. OSP plans to review and process post-award actions (e.g., no-cost extensions, rebudget requests, and other award management decisions), if permitted by each sponsor. SPA will continue to prepare and submit invoices, if permitted by each sponsor. Be aware that sponsors may slow down or stop processing post-award actions until the shutdown ends.

How We Can Help?

OSP and SPA will continue to monitor the situation and will update the UTIA OSP website with any changes.

Do you have questions or concerns not addressed above? Please contact Hollie Schreiber, Director of Sponsored Programs (hschreib@utk.edu or 865-974-7123) for additional guidance or scenario analysis tailored to your needs.