A ‘chaotic’ January? Congress faces two shutdown deadlines with no action yet on spending

Congress is staring down a funding cliff in mid-January and a second one in early February, but neither of those deadlines have inspired House and Senate leaders to broker agreement on the dozen bills that were supposed to become law by Oct. 1. Appropriators are concerned the upcoming election year and competing legislative priorities have pushed their work to the back of the line, increasing the odds that Congress stumbles into a partial government shutdown in the new year.