The agreement announced Sunday averts a possible partial government shutdown when the new budget year begins Oct. 1 and pushes final decisions until after the November election. Bipartisan negotiations began in earnest shortly after a failed vote last week in the House.

with leadership agreeing to extend funding into mid-December. That gives the current Congress the ability to fashion a full-year spending bill after the Nov. 5 election, rather than push that responsibility to the next Congress and president.

Well, that’s not good. Expect a shutdown if the GOP loses the presidency.

  • abff08f4813cOP
    12•21 hours ago

    Actually there’d be quite a few unhappy families as paycheques get delayed over the holidays for those working as civil servants, in military, etc. As far as I know that’s only happened twice - in the 1995-1996 winter holidays and the 2018-2019 winter holidays.

    And of course it’d start to get felt more generally if a resolution doesn’t come in early January, and could cast a pall over the inauguration.

    Quite coincidentally, the one in 1996 ended on Jan 6, 1996. Makes me wonder what will happen on Jan 6, 2025 if the shutdown continues - who pays for the National Guard folks, Capitol police officers, and so on?

    • skulblaka
      2•8 hours ago

      Makes me wonder what will happen on Jan 6, 2025 if the shutdown continues - who pays for the National Guard folks, Capitol police officers, and so on?

      This is a really big, serious problem that I didn’t even think about at first. Holy shit. Dollars to donuts this was a major consideration in the timing.