One thing that Democrats and Republicans were able to get together on yesterday was to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government for an additional four weeks beyond today’s deadline, until December 16. The continuing resolution was attached to a “minibus” of three appropriations bills, for various federal departments, including Commerce, Justice, Transportation, Housing [...]

OK, mystery solved. Over the weekend I was stumped with how Congress would handle the expiring continuing resolution that funds the government. Friday was the deadline, and there was seemingly no activity to suggest that anything would be done to extend the CR. But finally, we have learned the plan: the CR will attach to [...]

In six days, the continuing resolution to fund the government runs out. To avoid a government shutdown, the House and Senate will have to agree on some stopgap measure to allow the government to continue to run. Yet all the talk in Washington is over a completely separate budget process, the Super Committee deliberations, which [...]

I mentioned yesterday that we were headed for a looming government shutdown in a couple weeks, because Republicans appeared poised to, just like back in April, demand certain concessions as a condition for allowing a continuing resolution to fund the government. Back then it was about spending cuts, though several policy riders played a role [...]

I guess the President is meeting with House Democrats at this hour to map out some kind of strategy on jobs and the economy. Regardless of the strategy, here’s what’s going to happen: there will be no jobs bills, and Republicans will bring the country to the verge of a government shutdown. Again. On the [...]

While the first battle of the Fiscal Year 2012 budget ended without incident, the next one is shaping up to be a larger struggle. Rather than an across-the-board haircut, Republicans will insist on designating particular appropriations for certain amounts of money, as long as the total hits the $1.043 trillion cap. And that means that [...]

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 [...]

Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain, fresh off a victory at a key Florida straw poll, just went on CNN and basically said that FEMA needs full funding without offsets, a blow to the united front from Republicans on the issue that could lead to a government shutdown. “I would make sure that FEMA got the [...]

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 [...]