Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced this afternoon that the House and Senate have agreed on a temporary resolution of their differences that will allow the FAA to resume normal operations — and 70,000 construction workers to return to their job sites — while Congress is on its August break.

Senator Reid said that the fundamental differences between the two chambers are not resolved. This is just a way to fix the problem until Congress returns in September. The President and others had been pressuring Congress to resolve the issue before the House and Senate left town for their summer vacation. Most members have left already, but both the House and Senate are scheduled to meet in pro forma session tomorrow.

According to The Hill newspaper, the Senate will pass the bill that the House passed earlier. The House-passed bill contains a provision to which Senate Democrats strongly object that would cut subsidies to small airports in states like Nevada and West Virginia. The Senate had passed a “clean” bill that simply extended the FAA’s authority to collect airline taxes. Each side refused to pass the other’s bill. Under the agreement, although the Senate will pass the House bill, the Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, will use his authority to waive the airports from the cuts.

The House and Senate presumably will return to their feud in September.

NASA will hold a news briefing tomorrow to announce a new Mars finding from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The briefing is at 2:00 pm EDT at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. NASA says only that it is a “significant new Mars finding” from the MRO, which has been orbiting Mars since 2006. It will be televised on NASA TV.

Rep. Gabriele Giffords (D-AZ) returned to her job representing her Tucson, AZ district in the House of Representatives today after a seven month absence following an assassination attempt in January. Her vote helped the House pass the debt limit/deficit reduction deal agreed upon by the White House and congressional leaders yesterday.

The House passed the bill 269-161, but the big story was the return of Rep. Giffords.

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill tomorrow.

The Senate has passed the debt limit/deficit reduction bill. It now goes to President Obama for signature. The vote was 74-26 according to the National Journal.

President Obama has signed the debt limit/deficit reduction deal. It is now the law of the land. The New York Times has a very helpful graphic of what it all means.

President Obama told the nation that agreement has been reached on raising the debt limit and reducing the deficit.

He said, however, that the deal still must be approved by Congress. The White House released a fact sheet describing the compromise. House and Senate leaders are expected to discuss it with their caucuses tomorrow.

The White House website has a fact sheet outlining the deal that was reached last night on raising the debt limit and reducing the deficit. The House and Senate still must approve it.