Another shutdown! With negotiations at an 'impasse', the U.S. government might be headed that way

Republicans and Democrats refuse to get act together for end of year

The nation's anger over the last government shutdown has not yet faded, and it already looks like Congress will put the U.S. right back in that position, especially if Democrats and Republicans can't get their act together before the last session of Congress prior to the new year and the Republicans taking control.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - This time the impasse is between a conservative Texan and a Democrat from New York, over a potential package that would renew terrorism insurance programs.

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Republican Representative Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, is trying to enact changes in the 2010 Dodd-Frank banking law-a law Republicans have been trying to dismantle since it passed-by including it as an issue in negotiations over the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer (D) and the White House are fighting back, and have declared that Hensarling is purposefully overreaching in an effort to slow talks.

To avoid another government shutdown, which would be a disaster to both parties and make the 2016 elections wholly unpredictable, congressional leaders on both side of the aisle are intervening.

Unless Congress passes a bill, the government will shut down on Thursday night. House Speaker John Boehner (R. OH) has a policy of giving lawmakers three days to read a bill before voting, which means that the legislation must be posted Tuesday morning in order to be voted on.

This means that Congress may have to pass an emergency stopgap-funding bill, which would then allow bipartisan leaders and aides to look at any bill.

One should not be surprised, because Congress routinely attempts to tack on provisions to the year-end bill, and with Republicans taking control in January, Democrats have an incentive to get done with what they can prior to the switch.

But that may not pass, at least not easily. Republican leaders in the house have said that right now negotiations are at an "impasse".

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