When Congress reconvenes on Sept. 9, it will have just 15 days to pass a bill averting a government shutdown at the end of the month—an outcome that looks far from certain.
Fiscal Year 2024 will expire on Sept. 30, as will the government funding that was authorized for it in March.
To keep the government running, both houses of Congress normally need to pass identical versions of 12 “appropriations” bills that fund different federal departments and agencies.
However, Congress is nowhere close to passing these 12 bills.
The Republican-led House passed only five bills before breaking for its weeks-long summer recess, while the Democrat-led Senate has not passed any of them….