February 2, 2026

Federal Shutdown News & Updates – 2026

Partial Federal Federal Government Shutdown Resolved

As of February 3, 2026, the partial federal government shutdown has been resolved.

Partial Federal Shutdown

2/02/2026: Sent to all active PIs & MRAM.

The Offices of Research and Finance, Planning and Budgeting are closely monitoring the partial federal government shutdown. While the government has approved funding to some agencies, others have not yet been funded.

Impacted agencies not yet funded:

Department of Health and Human Services
Defense Department
State Department
Department of Labor
Department of Homeland Security
Department of Education
Department of Transportation
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Treasury Department

How will we continue to share information during a partial shutdown?

Award Specific:

Award specific communications are set up in SAGE, and Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) will forward this to the PI and eGC1 Administrative Contact.

If subawards are issued on any grant/contract with a stop work order, the OSP subawards team is putting into place necessary actions to suspend. You do not need to submit a subaward request to do this.

General information from a specific agency:

Agency specific information is being collected and will be posted to the UW Office of Research 2026 Federal Shutdown webpage as we learn more.

If you don’t hear anything specific from your sponsor, review the following general guidance.

General Guidance

Most impacted federal agency operations will cease until appropriations for those agencies are approved. Expect a lack of communications related to your proposals and awards. Impacted agencies may temporarily stop making payments.

OSP and GCA will continue with business as usual within the constraints created by impacted federal agency sponsor systems and staff.

OSP’s and GCA’s goals are to process items received to the extent possible. If funding appropriations to impacted agencies are prolonged, OSP may return requests that cannot be processed to the department until the agency is funded.

Federal Sponsor Applications

Use the sponsor’s posted sponsor deadlines to calculate your GIM 19 deadline until further notice.

We will provide details on specific sponsor systems used for proposal submission, as they become known. If federal sponsor systems have been shut down, applications will be submitted once these systems are back online.

If a PI chooses to use this time to refine the scope of work and delay submission until sponsor systems are back up, they may do so at their own risk. In this case, the PI should contact their OSP reviewer and request OSP return their eGC1.

Awards

Affected agencies will not issue awards during the federal shutdown.
Awards that were received by the UW prior to the shutdown can continue to be processed.
Awards that have been issued a UW Workday Award number can begin or continue work unless notification was received from the sponsor such as a “stop work” order or suspension notice.
Cooperative agreements from impacted agencies could be affected if federal participation is required, but not available.

Advance Spend (ADV)

GCA will continue to process ADV requests for federal awards. As with all advance spending, the department assumes the risk of nonpayment on expenditures incurred during the advance time period. Please see updated Federal Advance Spend Guidance.

Extensions

For existing SAGE Award Modification Extension requests with impacted agencies that require processing in sponsor systems, OSP will review and hold onto the MOD. The OSP reviewer will add a note in the Comments and History section until sponsor notification/approval processes are available. Please hold onto any new requests you may have until federal sponsor systems and staffing are available.

Campus can continue to submit Award Modifications in SAGE for Temporary Internal Extensions. OSP and GCA will continue to process these requests.

Post Award

GCA will continue to process and submit sponsor invoices, reports, draws and closeouts per usual, to the extent sponsor systems are available to do so.

Partial Federal Government Shutdown Likely

1/30/2026: Sent to all active PIs & MRAM.

The Offices of Research and Finance, Planning and Budgeting are closely monitoring the likelihood of a partial federal government shutdown after midnight tonight, 1/30/2026.

While the government has approved funding to some agencies, other key funders of UW sponsored programs have not yet been funded. We expect this will be brief and are hopeful the federal government will resolve the situation quickly.

While the University of Washington has liquidity to navigate a short term shutdown, a shutdown at this time coupled with continued federal policy volatility could present a range of outcomes that may differ from previous federal shutdowns we’ve experienced. UW leadership is preparing for a variety of scenarios.

What to expect during a partial shutdown:

Federal agency staff will not be available for approvals, support or administrative functions.
At this time, there is uncertainty as to whether impacted federal agencies will pause active federal grant and contract activities.
Impacted federal sponsors may or may not decide to suspend application submissions. Please check for announcements on agency websites.
Study sections, review panels, site visits and other review activities will likely be cancelled or postponed.
If a stop work order is issued on an award, please review GCA’s Executive Branch Actions guidance.
In the event a sponsor’s financial reporting system is temporarily unavailable, GCA will submit all impacted financial reports as soon as the system is restored and operational.
Impacted federal agencies may temporarily stop making payments.
Expect delays, lack of communication and lack of support from impacted federal agencies.

We will continue to provide more information and guidance relative to the shutdown and sponsored programs via MRAM and the UW Office of Research Federal Shutdown 2026 News & Updates, as it becomes available.