Now officially at the one-month mark, the government shutdown has had a dramatic impact on many aspects of daily life. Air travel is already losing millions to alternative travel like cruises, and national parks are hanging on by a thread with a surge in visitation and a skeleton staff to tend to them.
While air traffic and national parks are perhaps the most civilian-facing services affected by the government shutdown, they aren’t the only agencies feeling the burn. Numerous federal groups are in charge of vital communications, sharing information with the public about everything from environmental data to statistical releases to scientific studies. As with many other parts of the federal government, these communications are put on pause during a government shutdown.
While the lapse in data sharing is unfortunate, there are many crucial items that the federal government is tasked with communicating that can’t simply be “put on hold” until the government reopens, including emergency broadcasts. So where does the line fall? What communication is the federal government responsible for, regardless of the shutdown?
USGS’ Recent Volcano Notice Offers Some Clues About Mandatory Communications
On Monday, October 27, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) posted a Volcano Notice for Kilauea. The notice upgraded the current volcano alert level to “watch” and the current aviation color code to “orange.” While significant, it wasn’t the volcano notice itself that caught visitors off-guard, it was the fact that USGS, a federally funded government agency, was posting at all during the shutdown.
Indeed, even before explaining the cause of the notice and related analytics, USGS prefaces its summary with this statement:
During the lapse in appropriations, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) continues to maintain monitoring networks and issue updates and notifications of volcanic activity via the Hazard Notification Service. Volcano monitoring data will continue to be available on the HVO website. Static website content will not be updated until further notice and information may become outdated over time. For more information on the shutdown, please visit the Department of the Interior website at http://www.doi.gov.
The warning offers a significant clue about why the official website is sharing the recent update on Kilauea’s status. The change in volcanic activity is crucial information, but a vast majority of what USGS posts falls under “static” web content, which is not being updated through the government shutdown.
Static Versus Exempt Public Notifications During The Government Shutdown
Despite using government language like “static” and “exempt,” USGS’ message simply implies that there are two groups of information, essential and non-essential. Identifying which is which isn’t exactly straightforward.
Certain events are clearly timely, such as the volcanic activity on Kilauea. Government shutdown or not, failing to report such an event could lead to serious injury or air traffic incidents. While Hurricane Melissa did not make landfall in the U.S., if a similar weather event were to occur in the states, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and National Weather Service (NWS) would share joint responsibility in notifying the public, despite working without pay themselves.
Status During Shutdown
Notices Included
Exempt (Essential) Notifications:
Ongoing
Emergency Alerts and Warnings, Mandatory Safety Data, Direct Communication With Emergency Partners, Legally Mandated Reporting
Static (Non-Essential) Notifications:
Paused
Routine Press Releases, Routine Website Updates, Regulatory and Federal Register Publications, Educational Outreach/Programs
Regardless of which agency does the reporting, all groups in charge of public communication have the same criteria for essential notificiations, namely those “necessary to protect life and property.”
Conversely, the USGS Contingency Plan for the 2025 shutdown also sets guidelines about what is “static” or non-essential information that the agency is expected to put on hold until the shutdown ends. These include educational outreach, program newsletters, and similar non-time sensitive materials.
Are There Risks Associated With Pausing Static Notifications?
With potentially life-threatening notifications going out in full force, is there really any harm in pausing more static notifications, at least in the short term?
Of course, even non-essential notices serve a purpose, and pausing them can have consequences. In many cases, non-emergency notifications precede emergency notices. In particular, educational notifications are meant to inform the public about potential hazards, and the warning signs to look out for. In the case of USGS, public outreach is crucial for helping locals understand the warning signs for geologic activity.
The greatest risk, however, comes from the lapse in regular, non-emergency public notifications. While urgent messages are still being sent, more consistent public communication is not. Without these intermittent updates, those affected by potential emergency notifications may not have the background information needed to make an informed decision when an emergency does happen.
While the USGS volcano notice is the most recent example, agencies across the federal government are in similar predicaments, with the government shutdown and furloughed staff limiting the ability to communicate with the public and other public officials.
This lack of information can also lead to a great deal of chaos and confusion, both among the public and between agencies trying to share information without staff and without permission to communicate freely.
Everything is basically in chaos. And frankly everyone is terrified.” — A cancer researcher describing the impact of a communications pause at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to The Washington Post
The lack of non-essential communication not only limits public awareness of potential issues and future emergencies, it slows research and creates lapses in communication between cooperating agencies.
This confusion could be particularly problematic for travelers, especially ahead of the holiday season. Without regular public notices, it may be harder for travelers to make informed decisions about where to go for their winter getaway. Given the chaos that airports are already facing, adding a large group of unprepared tourists into the mix is a recipe for disaster.
This doesn’t just affect those traveling into major weather events. In Southern Utah, flash flooding has been a regular occurrence throughout the fall. While Utahns have the advantage of local weather updates, without federal notifications, visitors from out of state are likely to be left unaware of the ever-changing weather conditions of the seemingly dry desert landscape.
The recent volcano notice by the USGS has brought into focus the interesting contradiction between a government shutdown and the crucial need for ongoing government services. The federal government funds a wide variety of agencies monitoring everything from health to geology to weather. Despite furloughed staff and lack of pay, these agencies perform crucial and timely services that cannot wait for the government shutdown to end.
While these emergency notifications are ongoing, seemingly non-essential notices are on pause. These paused notices have lingering effects on how the agencies communicate with the public and each other, and allowing them to lapse can have long-lasting effects on interagency project and public outreach efforts.
