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The department’s plan, released Sept. 30, shows that highway and trucking agencies are among the least affected in a lapse of annual appropriations.

Under the latest plan, air traffic controller hiring and field training would also continue — a key difference from the March plan, which would have paused those activities. 

By claiming a national security rationale for the investigations, the administration can continue work on probes being conducted under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.

At least eight cabinet departments comprising more than two-thirds of the federal workforce had detailed their shutdown plans by the afternoon of Sept. 29.

Many federal operations will pause and nonessential employees will be furloughed or fired if lawmakers can’t reach an agreement by the time the current fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

Senior senators continue to negotiate terms of fiscal 2026 funding legislation on the heels of a House-passed short-term measure that would keep agencies operating through mid-November.

Congress moved closer to an Oct. 1 government shutdown as Senate Democrats and Republicans on Sept. 19 each blocked the other party’s rival plans to provide temporary funding.

With a Sept. 30 federal funding deadline fast approaching, lawmakers in the House and the Senate appear to be at an impasse over ways to avert a partial government shutdown.

Congressional leaders seeking to avert a shutdown of most federal agencies remained locked in debate about short-term legislation days before a key deadline.

House Republicans on March 11 passed legislation to keep the U.S. government open past a March 15 shutdown deadline, daring moderate Democrats in the Senate to block the measure.