The fighting’s over. For the next several days, at least.
Following the House’s lead, the Senate voted Thursday 81-19 to fund the government through September. The government shutdown that many observers expected — and that nearly came to pass — will not happen. For now.
Though the fight over government funding has been resolved, Republicans and Democrats will now fight overlapping battles to raise the national debt limit and fund the government next year. Each of those fights could result in government shutdowns, too. A default on U.S. obligations would have much farther-reaching consequences.
The Senate also killed two House-passed “corrections” to the spending bill — one that would have defunded Planned Parenthood and another that would have defunded the implementation of health care reform. Now the legislation heads to the White House for President Obama’s signature.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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