One day prior to the start of FY14, Congress has not passed appropriations bills for any department and is not close to reaching agreement on a continuing resolution (CR) to continue to fund the federal government until agreement on FY14 appropriations can be reached. Unless something unforeseen happens on September 30 to break the impasse, the federal government will shut down at midnight. Early Sunday morning, the House rejected the clean CR passed by the Senate on Friday, September 27 and instead again made the CR dependent on delay of implementation and other changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which the Senate and President Barack Obama have vowed to reject.The House of Representatives has been divided over how to proceed with a CR. The week of September 16, the House introduced a CR to continue funding at FY13 funding levels that was pulled from floor consideration because it lacked sufficient votes for passage. House Democrats objected to continuing post-sequester funding levels and some House Republicans insisted that the CR should include language to repeal funding for the ACA. The House then passed a redrafted CR that prohibited funding for the ACA and would provide FY13 post-sequester funding levels through December 15. The week of September 23, the Senate took up the House CR with similar controversy between some Republicans and Democrats over the ACA provision. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke on the Senate floor for over 21 hours against the ACA, calling on the Senate to retain the House language to defund the health care law in the Senate’s final version of the CR. The Senate stripped the CR of the ACA provision and shortened the term to November 15, passed it by a vote of 54 to 44, sent it back to the House on September 27, and went into recess until the afternoon of September 30. The House then passed a second CR that included language delaying the ACA for one year. The Senate will resume session on September 30, but there is little time to negotiate the differences between the House and Senate. During the week of September 23, Members of Congress discussed the possibility of passing a one-week CR to avert a shutdown, but no Congressional action has been taken on such a resolution to date. Members are skeptical that an additional week of debate would bridge the gap between the priorities of the House and Senate. On September 26, the White House issued a Statement on Administration Policy (SAP) supporting the Senate Amendment to the House CR. “The Amendment allows critical Government functions to operate without interruption, providing a short-term bridge to give the Congress time to pass a budget for the remainder of the fiscal year.” On September 29, the President issued a statement saying that “So far, the Republicans in the House of Representatives have refused to move forward… Instead, the House Republicans are so concerned with appeasing the tea party that they’ve threatened a government shutdown or worse unless I gut or repeal the Affordable Care Act.” The deficit, said the President, is “not what this is about. And in fact, if you’ve been following the discussion, the Republicans in the House don't even make a pretense that that’s what this is about.” The President said that FY14 funding should not be linked to other priorities of the House Republicans and pointed out that Democrats are not attempting to advance their policy priorities on a CR.With the Senate holding strong on not shutting down the government and passing a clean CR, and the House opposed to passing a CR without advancing its policy agenda, federal agencies began preparing for a government shutdown on September 27. HUD issued a contingency plan and scheduled conference calls on the agency’s shutdown plans. View the SAP at: http://bit.ly/16Z7pk7 View HUD’s Contingency Plan at: http://bit.ly/1blsitZ