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After buying itself another week, Congress is facing a Friday deadline to complete and approve an omnibus spending bill to keep the government open past Dec. 18.
The one-week continuing resolution expires at midnight Friday. Negotiators continue work on the massive spending bill that will provide federal agencies with their budgets for the remainder of fiscal year 2021, and could include language on a federal pay raise.
NTEU is pushing for lawmakers to finish their work to avoid a government shutdown, provide a fair pay raise to federal employees and adequate funding for federal agencies.
At the same time, additional coronavirus relief bills are being considered. There are potentially two bills that may see action in the House and Senate and one or both could be attached to the omnibus funding bill.
Meanwhile, Congress last week sent the defense authorization bill to the White House where it is facing a possible presidential veto. That bill contains language allowing federal employees to carry over 300 hours of unused annual leave. The additional 60 hours is recognition that federal employees were on the job during the pandemic.
We will monitor all the action on Capitol Hill and provide regular updates throughout the week.