Reading Room Document
Government Operations in the Event of a Lapse in Appropriations
A government agency may employ personal services in advance of appropriations only when there is a reasonable and articulable connection between the function to be performed and the safety of human life or the protection of property, and when there is some reasonable likelihood that either or both would be compromised in some significant degree by the delay in the performance of the function in question. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/opinion/file/844116/download.
The OLC's Opinions
Opinions published by the OLC, including those released in response to our FOIA lawsuit