As Congress confronts a potential federal shutdown Tuesday and an Oct. 17 deadline to extend the government's ability to borrow money, here is what to watch for, including key dates and times:
The House: Early Sunday, the Republican-led House approved a bill incorporating their latest additions to a must-pass government funding bill: a one-year delay in the nation's new health care law and permanent repeal of a tax on medical devices as the price for preventing a shutdown. The GOP's initial missive would have completely defunded implementation of Obamacare.
The Senate: Convenes at 2 p.m. Monday, 10 hours before a shutdown would begin. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is expected to quickly move to kill the House legislation, a step that is not subject to a filibuster and permits majority Democrats to easily dispatch it. The Senate voted Friday to pass a clean bill to keep the government running.
The House: Convenes at 10 a.m. Monday, but awaits Senate action. GOP leaders say that once they receive the Senate bill, the House will bounce another measure right back to the Senate, but they haven't said what it will contain.
Oct. 1: As midnight strikes and turns Monday into Tuesday, non-essential government functions would shut down. About 800,000 federal employees would be sent home without pay; workers would likely have to report to work Tuesday, work as little as four hours, then go home.
Social Security checks would continue, and essential government services would not be affected. However, trash pickup, libraries and rec centers in the District could be affected, unless an unusual gambit from the District works.
