These days it seems like management tries to keep a buffer so they can operate for a little while during a government shutdown. That being said, there are a var

These days it seems like management tries to keep a buffer so they can operate for a little while during a government shutdown. That being said, there are a variety of funding sources and it wouldn't be fair for some teams to be allowed to keep working while others could not, so they'll typically shut basically the whole lab down once they run out of extraordinary budget measures. Also, if there is an actual shutdown Congress usually retroactively pays the federal employees who were furloughed but it doesn't typically apply to contractors. (DOE labs are staffed by contractors rather than government employees so that they can pay more than the government pay scales)