10/01/2025
By Sara Akashian
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) issued this memo regarding government shutdown:
Subject: Federal Government Shutdown Due to Lapse in Appropriations
Dear NASA Grantee:
Appropriations provided under the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (Public Law 119-4) expired at 11:59 pm on September 30, 2025. On September 19, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the government through November 21. Unfortunately, H.R. 5371 was not passed in the Senate due to unrelated policy demands.
NASA appropriations expired on September 30, 2025. As of October 1, 2025, there are no annual appropriations for Federal Agencies, including NASA. As a result, the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) will be conducting an orderly shutdown on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, with limited exceptions for specific activities, unless the Agency receives additional appropriated funds.
If your institution's grant or cooperative agreement does require access to a NASA facility or participation from NASA personnel in order to perform the instrument's stated objectives, the guidance in paragraph (a) below is applicable to your institution. However, if your institution's grant or cooperative agreement does not require access to a NASA facility or the participation of NASA personnel in order to perform the instrument's stated objectives, the guidance in paragraph (b) below is applicable to your institution.
(a) NASA has reviewed the activities currently being performed under your entity's grant or cooperative agreement, specifically those activities being performed onsite at a NASA installation and have determined those activities to not be an “excepted” activity. Therefore, these activities cannot be performed while the NASA installation is shut down and must be suspended at this time, unless the activities can be successfully performed at an offsite location (i.e., non-NASA installation without the participation of NASA personnel and within the funding currently available on your entity's grant or cooperative agreement). This funding-induced installation shutdown is unlike other times when NASA installations have been closed due to inclement weather or other circumstances.
(b) Since your entity's grant or cooperative agreement does not require access to a NASA installation or participation of NASA personnel in order to perform the instrument's stated objectives, your entity is authorized to continue to implement the subject grant or cooperative agreement as long as the instrument has available funding. NASA Form (NF) 1687, NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement, and NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Terms and Conditions section 1.7, Incremental Funding, specify the total amount of funding that has been allotted to your entity's grant or cooperative agreement.
To the extent this grant or cooperative agreement can be implemented without access to a NASA installation or participation of NASA personnel, implementation may continue as long as funds remain available under the applicable award. However, your institution may experience a delay in funding disbursements from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Payment Management System (PMS) during a lapse in appropriations as NASA will not have personnel available to approve payment requests. As such, your institution may exhaust funding that has already been drawn down. Your institution is encouraged to carefully manage all funding that has already been drawn down in support of this award, and your institution may want to minimize activities and costs incurred to preserve funding during a shutdown.
Your institution is also reminded that the Agency is not obligated to reimburse it for the expenditure of amounts in excess of the total funds currently allotted to this grant or cooperative agreement. Also, your institution is not authorized to continue performance beyond the period covered by the allotted funding and is cautioned to closely manage all available funding, as additional funding will not be added to your award while the Agency is without an appropriation. Any activities performed during this shutdown must be carefully planned, taking into account that NASA technical and administrative personnel will not be available to support these activities during this time.
The direction in this letter is in effect until your entity is notified differently by a NASA Grant Officer. This is not expected to happen until appropriations again become available for the Federal Government, including NASA. Once Federal appropriations become available, NASA installations will reopen and funds can be added to your entity's grant or cooperative agreement as deemed necessary, and Government oversight and administrative personnel will resume their normal duties at that time.
Grant Officer NSSC/Grants Activities Branch