![Congress is already gearing up for the next government funding fight. Will this time be any different?](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/04/10/d2599c52-927f-4f3a-8c57-8a14b9c2c8ff/thumbnail/1200x630/779cb666038ac85e1b5acbf1e8cc3206/gettyimages-1246473598.jpg?v=8f9acb0830ce2ef2593f1d92f65cccba)
Congress is already gearing up for the next government funding fight. Will this time be any different?
CBSN
Washington — Last month, lawmakers in Congress finally resolved a funding fight that had stretched on for months, approving two separate bills to keep the government open and avoid a shutdown that would have had dire economic consequences.
And they did it just in time to start the process all over again. The funding packages will keep the lights on for the rest of the fiscal year, which is already halfway over.
A delay in approving annual spending bills is nothing new in Washington. In 2022 and 2018, the process also stretched into March. In 2017, it wasn't resolved until May.
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More than 2 million federal employees face a looming deadline: By midnight on Thursday, they must decide whether to accept a "deferred resignation" offer from the Trump administration. If workers accept, according to a White House plan, they would continue getting paid through September but would be excused from reporting for duty. But if they opt to keep their jobs, they could get fired.
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More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
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In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.