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There won't be a Thanksgiving shutdown, everyone from Congress to the White House is telling CNN's Phil Mattingly. "The House and Senate will pass measures to keep the government open and maintain funding at its current levels by next week's funding deadline," aides are saying. They are certain.
What's not certain is how long this stopgap bill will last, until Dec. 13 or Dec. 20. Nor is whether Congress will be able to agree to the topline spending numbers that will allow it to do actual appropriations bills to fund the government regularly for the remainder of the fiscal year, without anymore continuing resolutions. They may have a better idea of that by Wednesday, after a meeting between Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama and House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey of New York. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should be at the meeting, but "scheduling issues" have precluded their attendance. Also not there: the White House.
But, says Mattingly, "I've spoken to officials in both chambers, from both parties, and at the White House. There is no discussion of a shutdown, or any brinksmanship tied to one, related to this continuing resolution." With the caveat, always, of Trump. Everyone seems to think that they can kick this can to December with next week's vote, scheduled in the House for before next Thursday, when the continuing CR expires. At the same time, Trump's border wall, and whether it gets funded outright, or whether the House insists on language that precludes him from swiping funding for it from other pots "are still very much live and contentious issues that will need to be resolved."
The other thing apparently no one dared to whisper in these interviews: impeachment. Whether as an issue in the timing of votes and the appropriations process or Trump's willingness to cooperate in anything at all that involves the House, it remains an issue. At least it looks like government workers can have a Thanksgiving this year.