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The government will shut down Friday, if Congress can’t pass spending plan

WASHINGTON, D.C.– Congress faces another big week ahead. Republican leaders and President Donald Trump are facing the possibility of a government shutdown...
shut-down

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Congress faces another big week ahead. Republican leaders and President Donald Trump are facing the possibility of a government shutdown, on top of turning the tax bill into law.

The first major hurdle of the week comes Monday night, when the House and Senate will work together on a compromise tax plan bill.

But there's another deadline looming this week: the government will shutdown on Friday, December 8th, unless lawmakers pass some kind of spending plan. That is expected to happen, but the fix would only be temporary.

House Republicans have proposed a two-week stopgap funding plan to keep the government open through December 22nd. That would create another shutdown scenario just days before Christmas.

Democrats are not in support of that idea. They want a plan now, and they want it to include a measure that would protect the "Dreamers," the hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented workers, from losing their work permits early next year when the Obama-era program that gave them some security ends.

That deadlock raises the possibility of a shutdown.

"There is no crisis," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday morning. "The president has given us until March to address the issue of undocumented children."

"I don't think the Democrats would be smart to say they want to shutdown the government," he added.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer disagrees. "Certainly Democrats will be working with our Republican colleagues in Congress to that end," he said. "I think our Republican colleagues agree. I hope they won't succumb to President Trump's whim."

Monday night, House and Senate leaders will begin to iron out the differences between their two tax bills.

Among the biggest differences? The Senate bill cuts individual taxes only through 2025 and repeals the requirement that Americans must buy health insurance under Obamacare.

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