Congress narrowly avoided the potential crisis of a government shutdown, because FEMA found enough funding to last through Fiscal Year 2011, which ends this week. This eliminated the need for emergency 2011 funding, which was attached to a continuing resolution to fund the government. So they dropped that funding along with the offset that was [...]

As I reported during last night’s live blog, the Senate reached agreement on a Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government, including reduced emergency funds — but without offsets — through November 18.  The agreement averts for now the threat of a government shutdown.  The Senate approved the CR by a vote of 79-12, and [...]

Voting in the Senate on a temporary spending bill that includes disaster relief funding is about to get underway. Harry Reid submitted the bill, which is virtually identical to the bill that passed the Senate, except that the disaster relief funding is not offset, for a cloture vote, which requires 60 votes. That means that [...]

Despite threats to carry on with a one-week recess, Congress stayed in session, with still no agreement on funding the government past this Friday.  That means the threat of a government shutdown is still there. The Senate will vote this afternoon on a continuing resolution to fund the government that includes $3.65 billion in disaster [...]

Yesterday’s setback for Speaker John Boehner on a continuing resolution to fund the government shows what little real control Boehner has over his caucus. With 242 members, Boehner has the ability to pass any legislation he wants without Democratic crossover votes – and in this case he got 6 Democratic crossovers. He has a good [...]

The threat of a government shutdown, hardly part of any policy debates currently, became all the more real today, as Harry Reid vowed that he would not back down and would seek to replace the disaster relief section of the House continuing resolution, if it gets to the Senate, with an offset-free bill passed in [...]

Harry Reid made some news in his opening remarks, showing that there’s a ton of brinksmanship yet to be played that could move the country in a very real way toward a government shutdown in two weeks. The bird’s-eye view is this: Congress will not be able to get its Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations done [...]

Last night, it didn’t look as if the Senate would be able to get the clean extension of both the FAA authorization and the surface transportation authorization before a deadline of today. Tom Coburn was holding up the bill in a fruitless crusade against bike paths. It’s a long story. Well, Coburn had a lot [...]

Harry Reid went to the Senate floor this morning and accused Tom Coburn of stopping 80,000 Americans from working. It’s largely true: Coburn is blocking the consideration of the FAA and surface transportation authorization bill in time to avoid an expiration of FAA funding on Friday. I’m disappointed, however, in one of our Republican colleagues [...]

The attempt to meet looming deadlines and avoid shutdowns of part (or all) of the government resembles the aftermath of a car wreck right now. It’s unclear whether the Senate can move the broken-down vehicles off the road in time to let the traffic move through. Here’s what’s going on. The FAA authorization runs out [...]

Chuck Schumer just escalated the simmering fight over the FY2012 budget in remarks on the Senate floor. Schumer praised the FAA and surface transportation extension sent over from the House, saying that the brinksmanship over the debt limit “has caused a change in behavior. It has brought us together.” And he lauded the spirit of [...]