Odds are increasing that there could be a short-term shut down of federal agencies coming, including the Department of Transportation. This is due to a stalemate between Republicans and Democrats on resolving differences in Fiscal Year 2011 spending.
While talks drag out, a Mar. 4 deadline looms to pass a spending bill. It’s looking more and more likely that a compromise won’t be reached in that time.
The Federal Transportation Issues blog has the details. I checked with local branches of national agencies and all say that, at this point, this shutdown isn’t expected to effect them, except through not being able to do business with federal agencies during the shutdown.
The Department of transportation has day-to-day business with the public. If the department shuts down, who will the public approach with regards to transportation matters? The Republicans and Democrats in government better be aware of what they are doing.
If I remember right, this happened about a year ago too, when SAFETEA-LU (the current surface transportation funding bill) expired. It lasted only a couple days at the most and was treated much like the furlough days WSDOT employees have been taking. In the meantime though, work on construction projects stopped and communication with the public. Again, I'm struggling with my memory but that's what I recollect. Unfortunately its a holiday and I'm apparently the only government worker working, so when WSDOT staff gets back in tomorrow I'll see if they have a contingency plan.