A federal government shutdown is looking increasingly likely as House Republicans and President-Elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said they oppose a short-term spending bill that would have kept the government running into next year. “This chaos would not be happening if we had a real president,” Trump said in a statement. “We will in 32 days.”
Congress has until the end of Friday, Dec. 20, to pass a spending bill that will fund the federal government into next spring while it hashes out the long-term federal budget. If that deadline passes without Congress approving funding, the government will enter into a shutdown period until one is passed, during which time federal employees will be furloughed without pay and certain government services will cease to operate.
The US government has been shut down 10 times in its long history, the first one coming in late 1981. The most recent…
