Congress has one more week of their August/Labor Day recess before returning to DC on September 13 for a three-week pre-midterm session where mission number one is to pass a stopgap budget measure to in order to prevent a partial government shutdown on October 1.

While the Congress is out of session there have been behind the scenes talks to develop a strategy that will allow Congress to pass a so-called Continuing Resolution (CR) that keeps the government running past the end of the fiscal year deadline on October 1. Early reports indicated that the bill will fund the government until December 16, which would allow Congress to go home to campaign in October and leave some breathing room for Congress to pass a longer term solution before the holidays.

As with so much in Washington, nothing is easy. The most obvious hurdle is getting a budget bill that will have 60 votes in the Senate. As with nearly all legislation, the CR is subject to a filibuster if Senate Republicans want to make a point about Democrats funding the government at the levels approved in the current year’s budget. A Continuing Resolution, as the name implies, continues to fund the government at current levels. However, Congressional rules allow the CR to fund any program at higher or lower levels than c...

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