It looks like the Dems caved on the covid emergency funding. Didn't take long when SNAP benefits were going to be cut and air travel out of Washington DC was getting delayed. LOL The politicians made sure the legislature is funded.
There is something fundamentally unfair when many essential workers had to work overtime unpaid and now the nonessential workers are getting full backpay, essentially a fully paid vacation. Maybe the furloughed nonessential employees should be getting a reduced backpay? I don't have an answer but this just doesn't seem right and if I was an essential employee I would not be happy.

This is why government shutdowns are such a ridiculous joke. They don't save any money because they pay everybody, they just don't have to show up to work.

Maybe furloughed employees should only get payed for the time they spent working? That's the way it was for me with every job I ever had in the real world. If there wasn't enough work for you/money to keep you on, you got laid off. You might get called back to work when things picked up (standard in some seasonal jobs) but you didn't get paid for your time off when they called you back.

Link

Senate advances funding measure with backing of 8 Democrats, moving a step closer to ending shutdown

What to know on Day 41 of the government shutdown:

Eight Democrats joined Senate Republicans late Sunday night in voting to advance a House-passed short-term funding measure, the first step in weeks toward ending the government shutdown.

Fourteen previous Senate votes fell short of the 60 votes needed to move the legislation forward. Though more hurdles remain, the vote paves the way for an end to the shutdown as early as this week.

The breakthrough came as GOP leaders pursued a different strategy, one which would allow the resolution to be amended to include three longer-term appropriations bills, as well as an extension of the short-term stopgap measure passed by the House in September. The original House bill would have extended government funding until Nov. 21. The extension would run through January. Senate appropriators release the text of the appropriations bills earlier Sunday.

The contours of the deal began emerging in recent days amid bipartisan talks aimed at ending the shutdown. As part of the deal, Democrats would get a vote on a pre-determined date on health insurance tax credits that they have long sought to extend.

Senate adjourns, set to reconvene at 11 a.m.

The Senate adjourned around 11:15 p.m. and is set to reconvene at 11 a.m. on Monday.

Senate adjourns, set to reconvene at 11 a.m.

The Senate adjourned around 11:15 p.m. and is set to reconvene at 11 a.m. on Monday.

House leaders tell members to be prepared to vote this week

House members have been notified that votes related to government funding are expected in the lower chamber this week, pending final passage of the funding measure in the Senate.

The whip notice says members will be given 36 hours' notice of a vote.

The House last voted on Sept. 19.

"This was the only deal on the table," Shaheen says

Some of the Democratic senators who supported advancing the government funding measure, enabling it to proceed, held a presser to defend their votes.

"This was the only deal on the table," said Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.

Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, called the deal "a win for the American people."

He said the Democrats' shutdown strategy wasn't working. King had been voting with Republicans on the previous attempts to advance the funding measure.

"There was zero chance of dealing with the [Affordable Care Act] issue as long as the shutdown continued," said King.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who said he joined the group of Democrats just 48 hours ago, told reporters, "We were in a situation where SNAP recipients were suffering, and there was no guarantee we would ever get to an ACA solution."

"Now we've got robust SNAP funding and a guaranteed vote — not a guaranteed outcome — but a guaranteed vote on ACA tax credits," Kaine said.

Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who remained a "no" vote, said, "There's no good choice … we have to stand up to this kind of strong man dictatorial approach to governing this country." He said the package offered "no relief … for the incredible pressures people are feeling."

Hickenlooper said Democrats "did not get our key demand" to restore the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, though he was quick to add that "there's not one person in the Democratic Caucus who doesn't believe that we need health care for everybody."

Senate advances funding bill in breakthrough toward ending shutdown

The Senate voted to advance a House-passed measure to fund the government, marking a key breakthrough in the stalemate and paving the way to reopen the government later this week.

In a 60 to 40 vote, eight Democrats joined Republicans to advance the House-passed measure, which had fallen short on 14 previous votes. Here are the Democrats who joined Republicans on the vote:

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois
Sen. Angus King of Maine (independent who caucuses with Democrats)
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada
Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania
Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire
Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire

One Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted no.

Senate GOP leaders are expected to move to amend the legislation to attach a package of full-year appropriations bills as part of a deal to end the shutdown, along with an extension of the temporary funding measure to keep the government funded through January.

The vote marks the start of what could be a lengthy series of procedural votes in the Senate, since any one senator can slow the process down. Once through the Senate, the House would also have to approve the legislation before it could receive the president's signature.

^There's more but I got tired of copying and pasting.^

Go to the link if you want to read all of it.

It's far from a done deal.

Read James 4:13-17 and continue into James 5:1-6. These folks in DC are by and large of these being admonished, relative to this day and age.
.

Maybe I should have gotten a government job years ago instead of the private sector.

Will be interesting watching the procedural votes and how long it takes. My guess would be they might get it done Thursday as tomorrow is Veterans Day.

just kicking the can down the road. what happens in jan if no agreement is reached? got a good road system here. can drive anywhere in the lower 48 from anywhere in 4 days. would not bother me if all flights but international were canceled.

If they didn't pay for these vacations it would save the taxpayers about 10 billion dollars. As much as Doge saved. We could have several of these each year as cost savers. Probably save more money in shutdown than we would firing probationary employees in a year.

Rather than not pay the nonessential employees I wouldn't mind a big fat difficulty bonus.

AI will have all those jobs in a few short years

I think they just wanted to be home for Thanksgiving.

I see this show starting over in January.

If they are not essential why are there jobs for them to begin with?

Same reason you have a job. You are not essential to your steel company, but you still have a job. Theyd survive just fine if you walked out tomorrow, but since you are not going to walk out, theyll find work for you to do...

Well I was considered essential during the covid lock down. I would have enjoyed the time off but the lack of traffic was very nice.

I can’t speak for every federal employee, but in my area (department of war logistics) essential employees are a misnomer anyways. Every thing we do requires signatures from multiple parties who are apart of our integrated teams. I am considered essential, but every member of my team is “unessential” and furloughed. Because of that, there is essentially nothing I can do during the furlough even though I’m essential and have to be at work. It’s all very silly

There was only one Senator who voted on principal.
Rand Paul.
The Continuing Resolution is so full of ridiculous Democrat pork that it boggles the mind.
Am I a Rand Paul guy? No. But he is spot on with his stand on this. Without his staunch No Vote, I would have completely lost sight of the mess that we are really in.

Passed the senate just now, off to the house when they all get back to work.

I’m glad, I have a couple bids in with the Coast Guard, it’s good money and I’m about ready to get those jobs done.

wws