Shutdown Week 5: Where to Focus When Everything Feels Frozen

The FY26 federal shutdown has stressed and isolated customers, upended plans, delayed deals, and clouded forecasts. But opportunity and relationships still exist if you know where to look.

The FY26 shutdown has stretched into November, and while the headlines focus on politics, distress and furloughs, you still have a business to run. The good news? The market isn’t frozen. There are still ways to find traction and keep your pipeline and relationships alive.

We’ll take a look at what’s happening, where work continues, and how you can support your customer during this most difficult time. Along the way, we’ll show how you can keep momentum while others are waiting for the lights to come back on.

The goal here is to focus on what you can control: where the work continues, where conversations still matter, and how to show up for your federal customers even when the government can’t show up for itself.

The Current State of the Federal Shutdown

It’s week five of the shutdown. Nearly 1.5 million federal employees are currently missing paychecks. About 750,000 are furloughed and 730,000 are working without pay. Yet many technology projects remain active because they’re funded through no-year, multi-year, or working capital funds—accounts that don’t depend on new FY26 appropriations. These programs sustain critical modernization and cybersecurity work, even in political gridlock.

If the current continuing resolution (CR) is not passed by November 21, 2025, the process restarts completely. At that point, either the House reconvenes to draft a new CR or (more likely) the Senate will draft and pass one first. If that happens, the House must reconvene in a traditional vote or approve it by unanimous consent during a pro forma session.

Everyone in this market – customers, sellers and leaders alike – is feeling the pressure. Your customers are trying to keep the mission running without budget certainty. Sellers are watching forecasts stall, marketing teams are fighting to keep engagement up and leaders are just trying to hold their teams together.

What’s Still Moving

During a shutdown, acquisition to support the mission doesn’t actually stop – it just follows different paths. Here’s where activity continues:

No-Year Funds: Long-term programs such as CHIPS/NSTC innovation hubs that remain active because their budgets are “available until expended.”
Multi-Year Appropriations: Defense and infrastructure procurements operating under previously approved multi-year funding.
Working Capital Funds (WCFs): Self-funded DoD, GSA, and DHS accounts supporting IT, cybersecurity, and cloud modernization.
Permanent and Fee-Funded Accounts: Agencies like USPTO, USCIS, and DOE’s Loan Programs Office that function on user fees or revolving authorities.
The Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB): FY25 AI, cybersecurity, and autonomy lines that continue after OMB apportionment.

The key takeaway: Technology buying doesn’t stop—it shifts. Understanding which funding lanes remain active separates stalled sellers from those still closing deals.

What’s Paused

Here’s what’s currently on hold until a CR or full budget passes:

New FY26-funded contracts or task orders
New program starts (SBIR/STTR, OTAs, BAAs)
Option exercises needing fresh FY26 dollars
Ceiling increases for existing IDIQs or BPAs

“Paused” doesn’t mean “dead.” Work funded with prior-year or multi-year money still moves. Many program managers are using this quiet window to plan next steps and refine requirements. When the switch flips back on, it will be a hurricane of activity and the prepared vendors are able to move first.

Where to Put Your Energy

You still have a business to run. The question is where to focus effort that matters.

Map the Funding That’s Still Moving
Identify active funding lanes: Defense R&D, DHS S&T, DOE labs, NIST pilots, TMF investments, Commerce AI modernization. If the funds were obligated before October, they’re probably still spendable.

Promote Micro-Pilots Using FY25 or WCF Dollars
If an agency had FY25 funds left at fiscal year-end, propose a scoped, low-risk pilot that helps them sustain operations or modernize a small slice of their stack.

Prioritize Active Relationships
Agencies can still issue TOs and DOs under existing IDIQs and GWACs if the dollars are obligated. Double down on customers already within your contracting reach. Reinforce buyer trust and make it easy for them to act when funds release.

This is also an excellent time to focus on partnerships. Take that meeting with the hyperscaler that you keep putting off. Engage in joint territory planning with your channel partners. Start that new relationship with a VAR who can help you broaden your contract access.

Offer Real Insight and Fast Wins
Don’t just repeat funding or mission jargon, interpret it. Be the one who does the research and helps customers see where their missions can still progress. If your customer is still in-office, show up with no agenda and ask what you can do to help. Publish explainers or host short “what this means” sessions – because if you’re having trouble keeping up, they are too.

Think Educations, Not Sales
The stress federal employees and contractors are feeling is incredible, and all-consuming. They’re navigating layoffs, halted projects, and a ton of political noise in what used to be a politics-free zone. Your messaging should be calm, practical, genuine and genuinely helpful. Host a webinar, publish a cheat sheet, offer hands-on training, or a BYO-lunch and learn.

Plan for the Rebound
One thing is absolutely true: the shutdown will eventually end. When a CR passes, agencies will move fast. Prep proposals, mods, and outreach now so you’re first in line when contracting offices restart.

Engage with Buyers

Don’t hold back engagement. But right now, what you say isn’t nearly as important as how you say it. Federal buyers don’t want optimism, and they don’t want to read a novel. Many of them are working without pay or juggling mission priorities with reduced staff and no clear timelines. They want understanding and steady support, value to the mission and fast, succinct answers to their questions.

Lead with continuity. Show how your solution helps them maintain essential operations, manage compliance, protect data integrity and help their dollars go further. When the shutdown is in the rearview, Federal customers will remember who showed up when things were hardest.

Emphasize mission protection. Connect your offering to how it keeps their programs resilient and citizens served, even when funding pauses.
Show up as a partner, not a vendor. Be the calm voice in the chaos. Offer resources, insights, or quick-turn assistance that lighten their workload instead of adding to it.
Reinforce credibility through empathy. Acknowledge what’s difficult about their current position and let them know you’re invested in helping them carry the mission forward.

In short, be visible in meaningful ways: share short, informative updates, post thought leadership that simplifies the complex, or facilitate cross-agency discussions about continuity and innovation.

What’s Ahead

If a short CR passes before November 21, operations will resume at FY25 funding levels. New starts will remain on hold until the full FY26 budget passes, but once that happens, agencies will rush to restart projects and obligate funds quickly. Expect a surge in awards two to three weeks after funding restoration. For example, after the 2019 shutdown, GSA awarded nearly 30% of its delayed task orders within 15 days of reopening. Agencies also tend to rehire contract staff and reopen paused RFPs within days.

That said, this Administration has been unpredictable, and traditional rebound timelines might not apply. Build contingency plans. Budget for slower restarts, extended decision cycles, and shifting agency priorities so that you can pivot quickly if the rebound lags.

The Shutdown Tests Everyone – What’s Your Grade?

This shutdown is a test for government buyers trying to carry out their missions under impossible circumstances. They’re balancing continuity, compliance, and communication without knowing when budgets will clear. Supporting them through this uncertainty is one of the most valuable things you can do.

But this moment also reveals those sellers and leaders that truly understands how the federal market works. The professionals who prioritize their customer’s needs, support them under stress, grasp how money moves, plan for reopening and communicate clearly will come out stronger. Stay relevant, help your contacts navigate the process, and be ready when they can act again. Know the process, support the people behind it, and keep showing up with purpose.

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