Biden signs $1.2 trillion funding package after Senate’s early-morning passage ended government shutdown threat

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a $ 1.2 trillion package of spending bills after Congress had passed the long overdue legislation just hours earlier, ending the threat of a partial government shutdown. “This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted,” Biden said in a statement. “But it rejects extreme cuts from House Republicans and expands access to child care, invests in cancer research, funds mental health and substance use care, advances American leadership abroad, and provides resources to secure the…

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The House approves a short-term extension to avoid a shutdown. Senators are up next to vote

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed another short-term spending measure Thursday that would keep one set of federal agencies operating through March 8 and another set through March 22, avoiding a shutdown for parts of the federal government that would otherwise kick in Saturday. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill later in the day. The short-term extension is the fourth in recent months, and many lawmakers expect it to be the last for the current fiscal year, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said that negotiators had…

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Government shutdown can kicked down the road, again

It’s not a snow day in the DMV today, but federal agencies in the Washington, D.C.-area are open under what the Office of Personnel Management calls a “two-hour delayed arrival.” OPM also said that feds have the option for unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework. Emergency employees, though, are expected to report to work on time. (Washington, DC Area, 1/19/24 – OPM) A government shutdown has been averted and Congress has another six weeks to get fiscal 2024 funding across the finish line. House and Senate lawmakers passed the third continuing…

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Some agency leaders telling employees to prepare for a government shutdown

Even though Senate lawmakers are on the cusp of passing a bi-partisan continuing resolution to keep the government open to Nov. 17, agencies are telling their employees to prepare for a shutdown. The departments of Commerce and Homeland Security are among the agencies sending emails to employees today. “Prudent management requires the proper preparation for all contingencies, including the possibility that a lapse could occur. A lapse would mean that certain government activities would cease due to a lack of appropriated funding,” wrote Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in an email…

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Here’s how many feds would stay on the job – both with and without pay – during an upcoming shutdown

If Congress fails to pass appropriations bills or a continuing resolution by the end of this week, hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be furloughed. But based on agencies’ shutdown plans, they would actually be in the minority: roughly 65% of the overall federal civilian workforce would continue working through the shutdown, either with or without pay. A Federal News Network analysis of agencies’ publicly-available plans for appropriations lapses shows that out of a total workforce of just over 2.3 million, more than 1.5 million would be either “exempt”…

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How bad would a government shutdown really be?

There are lots of reasons why its bad when politicians fail to appropriate money to keep the government going at the end of a fiscal year. This year’s shutdown brinksmanship is sharper than ever. So what’s so bad if the government shuts down for a few days or a month? Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked about a list of reasons with Vice President of Research for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Jeff Holland. Interview Transcript:  Tom Temin And let’s go through your list, because the very first item on…

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