The U.S. Congress opens negotiations to avoid a government shutdown.
Starting this week, the U.S. Congress began two weeks of negotiations on how to avoid the government’s shutdown. This is the first major test of both parties in the United States since the election.
At present, government grants to almost all federal agencies will expire on December 11. Negotiations have made progress on how to allocate about $1.4 trillion in funding that will be spent by September 30, 2021, according to a House Democrat.
But the overall negotiations are still going on. The final congressional vote on this may be held near the December 11 deadline. If this Congress fails to agree on this, the next Congress, which will form in January, will have to clean up the endgame a few weeks before Biden is sworn in.
