The Senate scrambles to avoid a gov’t shutdown, which could leave millions without pay

11th-hour theatrics… American leaders still can’t agree on how to spend Uncle Sam’s cash. The country is three days from a federal government shutdown. On Tuesday, the Senate reached a bipartisan spending agreement aiming to avoid a shutdown. The stopgap bill would keep the gov’t funded till November 17, and includes $6.2B in aid to Ukraine, plus $6B for natural-disaster relief. 

• Don’t break out the Martinelli’s: The chamber still has to greenlight the bill before it can be sent to the House, where stark disagreements among Republicans cloud its chances of getting passed. 

• Refresher: Federal shutdowns happen when Congress can’t agree to pass funding legislation signed by POTUS. The House and Senate need to pass 12 spending bills to fund federal agencies — or pass a temporary extension. 

The course of true law… never did run smooth. If Congress can’t agree by Sunday, thousands of federal workers and 1.3M active-duty military members could be left without paychecks. Some workers would be furloughed, while essential personnel like military, law enforcement, firefighters, and TSA would be required to work without pay. Agencies like the FDA and OSHA may have to limit operations, and thousands of kids could lose access to care programs.

• All’s not lost: Most gov’t operations would be business as usual, since only about a quarter of federal spending is “discretionary” (the portion that requires annual approval by Congress). 

• Safety net: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security payments wouldn’t be affected. Neither would the Postal Service, which runs on its own $$.