"After the DOGE actions to eviscerate USAID and pretty much punish many, many agencies and terminate thousands of contracts, I think the contractor community is tentative to actually enforce their rights," David Dixon, an attorney at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, said Thursday as part of the law firm's DC Disrupted webinar series. Dixon said this question he is getting from contractors reveals the depth of their anxiety: Will the government retaliate against me for simply asking to be reimbursed for costs caused by the shutdown?
"Until the ongoing lapse in government funding is resolved, federal courts will maintain limited operations necessary to perform the Judiciary's constitutional functions," the judiciary said in a Friday news release announcing the lapse. "Individual courts will determine which cases will continue on schedule, and which may be delayed." Federal judges will continue to serve as outlined in the Constitution, but court staff may only perform certain "excepted activities permitted under the Anti-Deficiency Act."