"Government Shutdown"

Update | 12:10 p.m.

The Senate has delayed its floor session to 1 p.m.

Original story | 1:58 a.m.

Late on Memorial Day, House and Senate negotiators completed their conference committee work on a proposed state operating budget. They were 26 hours ahead of a still looming deadline.

Now, to avoid a second year of mass layoff notices to state workers and another government shutdown scare, the pressure is on lawmakers to take the negotiated deal as-is.

Sen. Anna MacKinnon, an Eagle River Republican on the conference committee, said their plan was a bipartisan and bicameral effort “to make sure that state employees do not face pink slips tomorrow in a real tough time for Alaska. … The budget before us … addresses the need to cut, the need to invest and the need to compromise.”

The operating budget bill is now bound for the Senate, scheduled to meet at 11 a.m., and the House at 1 p.m.

Like earlier plans, the proposed budget requires cashing out a lot of state savings — $3.2 billion in this case. Lawmakers’ go-to budget reserve requires a three-quarters supermajority to use. That’s given minority Democrats in the House some leverage.

The conference committee restored some money for K-12 public schools, the University of Alaska, child care benefits, and senior and disabilities services.

Fairbanks Republican Sen. Pete Kelly, who co-chaired the conference committee, even agreed to drop an across-the-board executive branch cut worth $100 million. The committee said equivalent savings would come from criminal justice and health care reforms.

After the meeting, Kelly said the votes the votes for savings draw will be there, unless “somebody broke their word.” He called the operating budget the “first domino to fall” in a series.

Other outstanding special session dominos include a capital budget, restructuring the Alaska Permanent Fund and its earnings reserve, shoring up the health insurance market, new or increased taxes, and medical insurance for survivors of peace officers and firefighters under Alaska’s public employee retirement system.

Alaska lawmakers are back at work Monday after failing to pass a budget by the constitutional deadline last week.

It’s the first day of a special session called by Gov. Bill Walker.

Lawmakers now have 30 days to try to do what they couldn’t in the past four months: Agree on a budget and make progress on closing the state’s $4 billion deficit.

There are several deadlines looming.

If there’s no budget in place by June 1, the administration will have to send out layoff notices to state workers.

If there’s still no budget in place by July 1, the state could face a government shutdown.

In addition to the budget, Walker has asked lawmakers to consider several bills that have so far proved immune to compromise.

Those include an overhaul of the state’s oil and gas taxes and a proposal to restructure the Permanent Fund — as well as a range of new taxes, including an income tax.

The House plans to convene at 11 a.m. Monday, followed by the Senate at noon.

The Senate has overwhelmingly passed a bill that funds the government through December. The bill does not strip funding from Planned Parenthood.

Remember, some House Republicans had insisted on defunding planned parenthood before they voted to extend funding for the whole government.

NPR’s Ailsa Chang reports that the action now moves to the House. She filed this report for our Newscast unit:

“On this last day before the government runs out of funding, the Senate has teed things up to avert a shutdown.

“A short-term funding measure sailed through the Senate this morning, and is expected to pass in the House later today. After weeks of both chambers holding votes to defund Planned Parenthood and to place new rules on abortions, it appears the battle to strip the women’s health group of federal dollars has been put on hold — for now.

“Investigations into the organization are ramping up, and Republicans may re-visit the defund-Planned-Parenthood fight in mid-December, when government funding will run out again.”

We’ll update this post once the House takes action.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Senate Democrats today blocked a Republican plan to keep the federal government open beyond next week. Their objection was that it also denied federal funds to Planned Parenthood.

With only days left before an Oct. 1 shutdown, the short-term measure that would fund the government through mid-December fell well short of the 60 votes needed advance, 47 to 52.

The vote took place just hours after Pope Francis’ speech to a joint meeting of Congress in which he urged lawmakers to come together to solve America’s problems.

This outcome was not unexpected.

Democrats had vowed to vote down any measure containing anti-Planned Parenthood language, and President Obama had threatened to veto any such bill.

Conservatives in Congress, notably Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, want to block federal dollars from going to the Planned Parenthood. The organization has been the subject of ongoing controversy since a sting video was released that alleges it profits from the sale of fetal tissue.

So the scramble continues to keep the government funded.

As the Two-Way reported last week, leaders of both parties are not itching for a shutdown. Republicans fear should a shutdown take place, a majority of Americans would saddle them with the blame, as in 2013.

Since Thursday’s procedural vote failed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to move to a vote on a “clean” continuing resolution, or CR, that leaves federal funding for Planned Parenthood intact.

As Politico reports:

“McConnell can also box out Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) from attempting a filibuster if the GOP leader acts quickly after the failed vote; otherwise Cruz could try to delay McConnell’s plans to jam House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) with a do-or-die vote on a clean stopgap spending bill, or continuing resolution. But Senate GOP leadership is confident they can rebuff any Cruz maneuvering.”

If the clean CR passes, as is expected, it will then go to the House, where its fate is less certain.

As The Hill reports, House conservatives could once again rally behind Cruz AS they did for the 2013 shutdown.

“Cruz’s power on Capitol Hill rests largely with House conservatives, as it did two years ago, because few Senate colleagues are willing to join him in challenging McConnell.

“If enough Republicans in the lower chamber side with Cruz, it could pressure [House Speaker] Boehner not to schedule a vote on a clean Senate-passed stopgap out of fear that it may cost him his gavel.”

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Thursday saw much sound and fury about resolving, at least for the short term, the political gridlock over the debt ceiling and the partial government shutdown. But it’s not clear what, if anything, it all signifies.