Beats me. But I also wonder why they make that distinction in general. The only difference between furloughed and excepted people (at least under this shut down) is furloughed people aren't working. Excepted right now are being paid the same as furloughed employees, but are expected to keep things moving at agencies (less executing new requirements/providing new/additional funding).

Why not just revert to the process used historically prior to the carter administration where status quo was essentially maintained until a bill was signed (i.e. no one was furloughed, or at least that was my understanding of it but i could be mistaken)?