Again?? Washington Scrambles to Avert a Partial Shutdown
Plus: The Fed takes a pause, a year of the Trump economy — and, is it time to sell your gold?
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Government shutdown déjà vu?
Less than three months after the last government shutdown, here we are again. The situation remains fluid, but here’s what we know as we hit “send” on this edition of MoneyNerd.
The bad news: A partial shutdown is likely to happen just after midnight tonight.
The not-as-bad news: It looks like it could be very short (unlike the last one — the longest in U.S. history, remember?).
Here’s the situation: To end the last shutdown, Congress passed bills to fund some parts of the government through September — and some parts through Jan. 30. So here we are.
To avoid a partial government shutdown, lawmakers in both chambers would need to pass funding bills or a short-term continuing resolution to fund the remaining programs and departments by the end of the day Friday. That isn’t going to happen.
The sticking point right now is funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Democrats are refusing to fund the DHS without accountability measures and reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
On Thursday, several Republicans joined Democrats to reject the vote to advance a package of House bills that included DHS funding. Later that day, Senate Democrats and the White House agreed to separate DHS funding from a larger spending package, temporarily easing the standoff. While the deal doesn’t include ICE reforms, it allows more time for negotiations.
The Senate plans to pass the remaining funding bills before the Friday deadline and a short-term continuing resolution that keeps DHS funded for two weeks.
However, even if the Senate carries out the deal, the House still has to pass the measures, too. The House isn’t in session until Monday, which means that the government will very likely partially shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday. It wouldn’t be a full shutdown (like last time) since some spending bills have already been approved by Congress — food assistance, for example.
So long as the House approves the spending packages and the stopgap next week, any impacts would be minimal and short-lived.
We’ll keep tracking all the shutdown machinations — to learn the latest, click here.
Also in the Jan. 29 edition of MoneyNerd:
- Sitting on gold? Here’s the big question.
- After three rate cuts, the Fed taps the brakes.
- The Trump economy, one year in.
- Smart Money: What’s behind the gold rush.
- Nerdy money tips.
- Video: When AI decides what you pay.
- ICYMI.
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Your MoneyNerd team: Courtney Neidel, Anna Helhoski, Rick VanderKnyff.
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