Congress could vote as soon as today (Wednesday) to end the partial government shutdown now in its third week, potentially sending furloughed employees back to the job as soon as tomorrow. In what has become a familiar pattern, the government has gone down to the wire on important budgetary decisions, with the Treasury due to hit the nation’s borrowing limit tomorrow and with the need to raise that ceiling tied to resolving the shutdown. Numerous plans have been considered and rejected, culminating in a bipartisan Senate initiative that would raise the debt ceiling through February 7 and fund the government roughly at fiscal 2013 levels through January 15. It also would set the stage for a renewed budget talks—potentially including some relief from sequestration spending limits but also deficit reduction efforts of the sort that often put federal benefits, in particular retirement, on the negotiating table. The House on Tuesday failed to pass its own plan that contained numerous policy restrictions although it also would have guaranteed retroactive pay to employees who have been on unpaid furloughs since the shutdown started October 1; the Senate plan presumably also would do so but specifics in writing have not been released.
