We Just Got Off The Phone With A 'Non-Essential' Government Agency That's Still Fully Operational

At least one "non-essential" government agency has survived the shut down.

At least for now.

We just got off the phone with a Department of Energy analyst helping us on a story.

When we originally emailed the employee, who works in the Energy Information Administration, we weren't sure whether we were going to hear back - but had a hunch we might because the EIA's website remains fully operational.

He said the agency has enough spare funds to keep going through next week.

The EIA also mentioned this in a Tweet today:

A DOE spokesman did not respond to an inquiry about the exact size of the rainy day funds available.

According to the Department's official shutdown plan, if the government is still shutdown after another week, more than 12,000 employees will still have to stay home (out of more than 13,000).

The EIA only gets to keep three.