AG Civiletti issues legal opinion changing interpretation of Antideficiency Act

On April 25, 1980, U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, serving under President Jimmy Carter, issues a legal opinion fundamentally reinterpreting the Antideficiency Act of 1870. The Act had long prohibited government spending without congressional appropriations, but agencies had historically interpreted it to allow continued operation during brief funding gaps. Civiletti's opinion reverses this practice, ruling that the Act requires federal agencies to cease operations during appropriations lapses rather than continuing on skeleton crews. This legal shift transforms what had been administrative management of temporary funding gaps into formal shutdowns requiring furloughs of federal employees. Civiletti's opinion states that agencies can only continue paying employees 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." This legal reinterpretation will govern shutdown procedures for decades to come.