About 2,000 Transportation Department employees will remain on furlough unless the House passes the Senate's version of the job bill without amendment, or if the Senate passes the House version of the 30-day extension of transportation programs bill.

Of the furloughs, most came from the Federal Highway Administration, about 1,350, mostly all from the headquarters office in Washington, according to a bureau spokeswoman.

NHTSA accounted for about 143 workers, with 74 from the field offices and 69 at headquarters, says a bureau spokesman.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has not answered its phone all day and has a message saying because of furloughs the office is closed. A DoT spokeswoman confirmed most of the agency is not in the office, but couldn't say how many exactly where furloughed.

The RITA Web site has been down all day as well. It's unclear whether the Web site problem is related to furloughs.

A spokesman for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee says Sen. Jim Bunning's (R-KY) hold on the 30-day extension, which is a main reason for the furloughs, likely will not matter if the House passes the jobs bill.

"Right now there is some disputes over the transportation extension language in bill, but we have worked it out with Sen. [Harry] Reid and House speaker [Nancy] Pelosi with Rep. [James] Oberstar, and Rep. Oberstar has lifted his objections," the committee spokesman says.

"Rep. Oberstar has accepted the bill with written assurance from Reid that they will take up some of the concerns later in the session."

Oberstar is the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Federal News Radio first reported the potential furlough of 2,000 employees on Friday's Daily Debrief.

As Federal News Radio's Jason Miller reported earlier on Monday, Transportation has already released some guidance about what furloughed employees should do.

The spokesman says passing the Senate's version of the jobs bill still may hit some road bumps as other House coalitions -- the Blue Dog Democrats and the Congressional Black Caucus to name two -- have objections over non-transportation related issues.

A message seeking comment from Speaker Pelosi was not immediately returned.

As for the 30-day extension bill, the Senate gallery advises the full Senate is expected to take up the measure. And so far, no word from the Democratic cloakroom on a decision on a cloture vote, but several of the offices have told Federal News Radio that they believe a decision on that is imminent.

"We tried multiple times last week to pass a short term extension of expiring programs last week including the highway bill," says Regan Lachapelle, a spokeswoman for Reid.

"We both asked consent to pass the bill and to try to have a vote. Unfortunately, Senator Bunning objected to both. We will likely ask consent again today to try to pass the short term extensions when we come in at 2 p.m. We are also moving to a bill today that included longer-term extensions of expiring programs such as UI and Cobra in addition to tax extenders and Medicaid assistance to states. We expect several amendments to this bill, so we will likely consider the bill for the duration of the week."

Lachapelle adds that the House is expected to take up the jobs bill with the one-year extension to the transportation programs later this week. If they pass it, it will then go to President Obama for his signature.

Messages seeking comment from Sens. Richard Durbin, the Senate Whip, and Bunning were not immediately returned.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security, says in a release that this is a "clear demonstration of how Republican obstruction in Washington directly hurts American workers and communities."

Earlier today, DoT let employees know who is being furloughed. The agency set up hotlines for the affected bureaus: the Federal Highway Administration, the Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the Research and Innovative Technology Administration.

"Employees at the Department of Transportation should report for work Monday morning as they normally would unless given specific alternate instructions," Transportation secretary Ray LaHood says in a statement.

DoT also released a list of 41 projects affected by the delay in passing the transportation bill.

The 9th Street bridge replacement project in Washington and the George Washington Parkway Humpback Bridge replacement project were among the 41 that need to be shutdown because DoT's cannot pay federal inspectors to oversee projects.

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