The Shutdown Per-Diem Locust Strategy: Get Paid to Travel to Random Cities
The government still owes you backpay, but a bunch of agencies (DoD, DHS, DOJ especially) will let “essential” personnel TDY-travel during shutdowns and pay per diem upfront on your GTC because lodging/meals are considered “excepted expenditures.”
Weaponize this loophole:
Step 1: Find any conference, training, or “critical site visit” happening in a high per-diem city (San Francisco, New York, Boston, San Diego, Honolulu) in the next 30 days that your agency would normally send you to.
Step 2: Get your supervisor (who is also not being paid) to approve the travel auth anyway — they will, because optics.
Step 3: Book the absolute cheapest red-eye flights and the government-rate hotel… then stay with friends/Airbnb/Uber home/share nothing.
Step 4: Pocket the full M&IE ($79–$109/day in those cities) plus lodging (~$300+/night) in cash, every single day.
Real-world example from the 2018–2019 shutdown: A GS-13 at DHS got approval for a 3-week “critical infrastructure inspection” in Hawaii. Flew Space-A on military hops for $23 each way, stayed with a cousin, cleared $312/day cash per diem × 21 days = $6,552 pure profit. Did the same trip to San Francisco two weeks later. Total take: $18k+ while still getting full backpay later.
Stack 2–3 of these trips back-to-back and you can clear five figures in pocket cash before the shutdown even ends — all on the government credit card that gets paid when the CR finally passes.
The shutdown doesn’t pay you for showing up to your desk. But it will literally pay you $400–$500/day to exist anywhere except your actual duty station. Go exist somewhere expensive.
The Shutdown Per-Diem Locust Strategy – Get Paid to Breathe in Random Cities
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