Congress faces another tough week with shutdown threat looming

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Congress is heading into another busy week following the frenetic rewriting and passage of the Senate GOP tax bill. At the top of the agenda is negotiating a deal on keeping the federal government funded to avoid a shutdown of some agencies on Friday, when current funding runs out. House Republican leaders are proposing a two-week extension through a "continuing resolution" that would keep government agencies funded until Dec. 22. GOP leaders say the extra time would allow for negotiations on boosting spending for the Pentagon and domestic agencies, which otherwise face cuts. Democrats are demanding a deal on protecting young undocumented immigrants. Republicans don't want to include the immigration fix in the budget deal, suggesting a possible deadlock.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.