Senate Deal Avoids Shutdown

Phew! That was close. On Monday, Senate leaders reportedly reached a bipartisan deal that will avoid a government shutdown. The agreement was made after FEMA said that it had enough money to last until Thursday—and not Tuesday as originally predicted. The House still needs to sign off on the agreement, but the disaster funding is reportedly what the House had already approved. Congress was supposed to be off this week, but lawmakers remained in Washington as they scrambled, once again, to avert a government shutdown. The House GOP had passed a bill including emergency funding last week but paid for it by cutting energy programs popular with Democrats. The shutdown could have gone into effect as soon as this weekend.