For the first time, the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are all women, as is the top White House budget official. Can they avert a fiscal disaster? They’re determined to try.
Senator Richard C. Shelby made the most of his perch on the committee that controls federal spending. Now he’s leaving Congress, where his way of doing business is a fading art.
The stopgap spending measure was the final legislative deadline facing the Senate before the midterm elections. It heads to the House next, with a midnight deadline on Friday.