The U.S. Government Actually ‘Shut Down’ at Midnight Last Night

The Senate passed a consolidated spending bill to fund the government on Saturday morning but failed to do so before the shutdown deadline. The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, a bill to appropriate $1.2 trillion of public funds, was published by the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee at 2:48 a.m. EST on Thursday. While narrowly passed by the House on Friday and the Senate on Saturday morning, the latter was unable to do so before the 11:59 p.m. EST deadline.   The Senate passed the bill at 2:03 a.m. EST on Saturday by a vote of 74 yeas to…