Federal Government Shutdown Averted

Leaders in Washington avoided a shutdown of the federal government by reaching terms on a temporary spending measure that will fund the government through Thursday. 

Funding for federal programs - which would have affected everything from  to  to to - was due to expire at midnight on Friday. The announcement was reportedly made just before 11 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House John Boehner released the following joint statement: 

"We have agreed to an historic amount of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, as well as a short-term bridge that will give us time to avoid a shutdown while we get that agreement through both houses and to the President. We will cut $78.5 billion below the President’s 2011 budget proposal, and we have reached an agreement on the policy riders. In the meantime, we will pass a short-term resolution to keep the government running through Thursday. That short-term bridge will cut the first $2 billion of the total savings."