The U.S. government is on track to run out of funding at midnight on Thursday unless an agreement is reached.
The U.S. government could be heading for a shutdown in two days’ time after Republicans in the Senate blocked a bill that would have continued funding the government but also raised the debt ceiling. The government may run out of money by midnight on Thursday, forcing a shutdown and the furlough of hundreds of thousands of federal employees until a funding deal is reached. It would be the first government shutdown of President Joe Biden ‘s term and the earliest shutdown in any administration since shutdowns became a part of the funding process in 1980. Biden had been in office eight months as of September 20, meaning a government shutdown would come at an extremely early stage in his administration. While there have been 20 funding gaps lasting at least a day since 1976, just 10 have resulted in federal employees being furloughed, according to the House of Representatives website.
