On Politics

Mon Oct 2 2023

Marina Pitofsky | Associate Editor/Politics

Hi OnPolitics readers! Congress is having a particularly exhausting Monday, after working over the weekend to dodge a government shutdown.

In a stunning twist, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle came together to pass what's known as a continuing resolution. That's a measure that kicks the can down the road, buying Congress more time to figure out how to keep the government's running.

But the temporary solution didn't leave everyone happy, USA TODAY's Ken Tran reports. Here are the winners and losers from a chaotic weekend in Washington:

🏆 Winners: The true winners after Congress managed to avoid a government shutdown are the American people. If the government had closed its doors, hundreds of thousands of federal employees would have been furloughed , and nutrition programs for some low-income people would have paused, among other catastrophic consequences.

🤷 In-betweens: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy got to take a victory lap on Saturday night, but now hardline conservatives are threatening to oust him from his leadership role. And House Democrats managed to force Republicans to approve a solution without deep spending cuts, but they didn't get the additional aid to Ukraine they wanted either.

❌ Losers in the shutdown fight: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and other conservatives have impeded McCarthy's attempts to avert a shutdown every step of the way. The short-term solution Congress passed over the weekend didn't include much from their wish list, like those spending cuts.