The House plans to try again to pass and send to the Senate a bill to provide funding to keep agencies operating starting October 1, continuing spending at roughly current, post-sequester rates, through December 15. A scheduled vote last week was postponed due to disputes over the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Failure to passa "continuing resolution" by the end of this month would trigger a funding lapse and partial government shutdown in which some employees would be kept away from work without pay and others would have to continue working unpaid until funding is restored; the latter group almost definitely would later be paid for that period, while the outcome for the former group would be less certain. Passing extended funding authority would provide more time for Congress to work on individual appropriations bills or a long-term catchall bill with the defense appropriations measure possibly serving as the vehicle. The House-passed version of that bill would prohibit furloughs at DoD in fiscal 2014, although it doesn’t specify how the needed savings would be achieved if spending remains at lowered levels. There is no guarantee that even a catchall budget will be enacted before the end of this year; several times in recent years temporary funding has been extended past the turn of the year.
