Senate approves defense policy bill, baiting veto

Budget

McCarthy’s last-ditch bid to keep government open fails; shutdown near

The bill’s failure a day before Saturday’s deadline to fund the government leaves few options left to prevent a shutdown.
Gates will be locked, rangers furloughed at national parks in shutdown

The majority of more than 420 national park units will be off-limits to the public, Interior officials said.
The demographic and fiscal time bombs ticking inside the Pentagon

The lack of 18-year-olds to serve and our country’s towering fiscal deficits will endanger our national security in the near term.
What happens to ‘essential’ federal employees in a government shutdown?

The only thing guaranteed at this point is that a shutdown, even a short one, would affect wide swaths of the workforce.