Shutdown Averted at Last Moment

Democrats and Republicans reached agreement on a budget for the rest of FY2011 literally at the 11th hour, averting a government shutdown that would have occurred at midnight Friday.

President Obama made a staement at 11:04 pm EDT as the House and Senate passed another short term Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government for one more week (until April 15) while the terms of the agreement can be put into formal legislative language and enacted. This is not the same short-term CR that the House passed Thursday. This one would cut only $2 billion, instead of $12 billion, in exchange for the week-long extension. None of the $2 billion appears to be from NASA or NOAA space programs.

The specifics of the overall deal that was reached for the remaining six months of FY2011 have not been released, but it cuts $37.7 billion from current spending (at FY2010 levels) according to The Hill newspaper. The two sides had been fighting over a $33 billion cut (Democrats) versus $40 billion cut (Republicans). Just as importantly, Republicans agreed not to include policy provisions (“riders”) that would have, for example, prohibited federal funding for Planned Parenthood and prevented the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from issuing certain regulations.