UPDATED, 12:00 a.m.--Federal truck safety programs will continue to operate despite a partial government shutdown that took effect at midnight.

By Diliff via Wikimedia Commons

By Diliff via Wikimedia Commons

Other Transportation Department activities will be curtailed, however.

Congress had until the end of Monday to agree on a plan to continue funding government operations.

The Senate on Monday afternoon rejected a House plan that would continue funding for three months but also would delay Obamacare for a year and repeal the tax on medical devices that provides some of the funds for the health care law. Late Monday night the House and Senate were in a game of what many on Capitol Hill and cable news were calling “political ping-pong” as there was an attempt to reach a last-minute solution. When the clock struck midnight, nothing had been agreed to, at least formally.

The shutdown will have no immediate impact on Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration activities. Because the agency’s money comes from  multi-year appropriations through the Highway Trust Fund, rather than general revenues, it would not have to lay off any staff.

“FMCSA has sufficient balances of liquidating cash to operate for a limited period during a lapse of annual appropriations,” DOT said in an analysis of the pending shutdown.

The same applies to the Federal Highway Administration.

But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates truck equipment, would have to furlough employees, as would the Office of the Secretary, the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, the Inspector General and the Surface Transportation Board.

You can see many of the parts of the federal government that are open, closed or somewhere in between, from CNN. 

 

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