Senate Flirting With Government Shutdown As Midnight Deadline For Spending Bill Looms

Democratic senators took the chance to use the lame-duck session to work in one more gridlock this week. This time, the issue is over the stop-gap spending bill passed by the House this week, which would fund government operations through late April.

The Spending Bill In Question

A handful of Senate Democrats, including Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, are holding out to try to get a better deal for retired coal miners.

Thousands of retired coal miners are set to lose their health insurance at the end of the year, and the new spending bill would extend that deadline by four months. However, Senate Democrats believe the coal miners deserve a more permanent deal.

“We can do the right thing between today and tomorrow,” Manchin said on Thursday.

This isn’t the first time Congress has allowed government spending bill decisions to come down to the wire. If the Senate doesn’t approve the bill on Friday, the government could shut down over the weekend.

At What Cost?

In the past, these government shutdowns have cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Following the government shutdown in 2013, government workers that had been sent home on furlough were retroactively paid $2.5 billion for their time off. Because of the shutdown, taxpayers got zero production out of that money.

At this point, investors don’t seem to be paying much attention to Congress’ budget shenanigans. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) opened Fridays session up 0.1 percent.