A Shutdown Has Been Avoided … For Now

Con­gress has aver­ted a mid­night shut­down, as the House on Wed­nes­day af­ter­noon fol­lowed the Sen­ate’s ex­ample by eas­ily passing a tem­por­ary spend­ing bill fund­ing the gov­ern­ment through Decem­ber 11.

The stop­gap meas­ure passed the Sen­ate 78 to 20 and then cleared the House on a 277-151 vote, des­pite the op­pos­i­tion of dozens of con­ser­vat­ives with ob­jec­tions to any pack­age that con­tin­ues to fund Planned Par­ent­hood. Videos re­leased by a pro-life group charge that the or­gan­iz­a­tion is il­leg­ally selling fetal tis­sue for a profit; the or­gan­iz­a­tion vig­or­ously denies the al­leg­a­tions.

Neither Demo­crats nor Re­pub­lic­ans were thrilled about the shut­down show­down, and both sides poin­ted fin­gers at the oth­er for bring­ing the coun­try to the brink. But there is some hope that the two sides can come to an agree­ment in the next few months for a longer budget deal clear­ing the decks for the next pres­id­ent.

Continue reading at http://www.govexec.com/oversight/2015/09/shutdown-has-been-avoided-now/122446/?oref=govexec_breaking_alert.