Government shutdown begins; Congress fails to enact funding bill
Photo by Kent Hoover
Congress burned the midnight oil, but couldn't come to an agreement on a funding bill to prevent a government shutdown Tuesday.
The federal government has shut down, despite a long day and night of back-and-forth legislative action by the House and Senate.
The shutdown officially went into effect after at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, but the gears for shutting down most government operations started turning at 11:45 p.m. Monday, when the Office of Management Budget ordered federal agencies to "now execute plans for an orderly shutdown[5] due to the absence of appropriations."
This step took place after the House twice sent the Senate bills to fund the federal government beyond Monday, but included provisions to delay health-care reform. The Senate rejected those bills and insisted the House pass a clean that extends government funding another six weeks.
You can read more about this back-and-forth here[6]. Check out the slide show with this post for a short photographic history of what led to the government shutdown.
As midnight approached, House Republicans came up with a new idea: Appoint a conference committee to resolve the differences between the House and Senate. Plus, the House would once again pass a short-term funding bill that delays Obamacare's individual mandate for a year.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid[7], D-Nev., immediately shot down that idea.
"It is hard to comprehend, with millions of people being affected tomorrow -- in 65 minutes actually -- that Republicans are still playing games," he said.
If the House would pass a short-term funding bill -- with no Obamacare provisions -- the Senate would be glad to negotiate with it on a longer-term spending bill, Reid said. But, he added, "we will not go to conference" until the House passes a clean continuing resolution.
References
- ^ Kent Hoover (feeds.bizjournals.com)
- ^ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (feeds.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Twitter (twitter.com)
- ^ Google (plus.google.com)
- ^ execute plans for an orderly shutdown (www.whitehouse.gov)
- ^ read more about this back-and-forth here (www.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Harry Reid (feeds.bizjournals.com)