Short-Term Government Spending Bill Passed

A Continuing Resolution to fund the government through December 3rd was passed by Congress and signed by the President last week, avoiding a government shutdown when the previous fiscal year ended on September 30th. Additionally, the funding bill contains $6.3 billion to help resettle Afghan refugees and nearly $29 billion to aid areas impacted by recent natural disasters. 

While Congress and the White House agreed to fund the government through December 3rd, they have not been able to pass a debt ceiling limit increase. The current ceiling will be reached in the next two weeks, at which time the federal government will not be able to pay bills. Additionally, the President and Democrats in Congress continue to negotiate the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure legislation that passed the Senate earlier this year and the $3.5 trillion "human infrastructure" reconciliation bill that would increase taxes while funding several Democratic social programs. The President and Democratic leadership are considering a smaller reconciliation bill to unite the various factions within the Democratic party, but details have not been publicized. Democratic leaders have given themselves a new deadline of October 31st to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, as the previous deadline of September 27th was missed due to disagreement within the Party of whether the infrastructure legislation should pass without having agreement on the reconciliation package.