Washington Digest: Congress Ends Shutdown, Averts Debt Crisis
WASHINGTON — Ending the latest crisis on Capitol Hill, Congress
passed a bill last week allowing the government to reopen after
a 16-day shutdown and continue borrowing money to pay its bills.
Votes in the House and Senate came the night before the Treasury
Department had said it would have exhausted remedies to avert an
historic U.S. default.  Passage of a temporary appropriations
bill reopened national parks and allowed the resumption of
government services. It called 800,000 furloughed federal
employees back to their jobs, along with back pay for time they
were not working.  The final compromise negotiated by Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and his Republican
counterpart Mitch McConnell of Kentucky funded the government
until January 15, and extended its borrowing authority until
February 7.  In the meantime, it created a House-Senate
conference committee to negotiate fiscal issues including
spending, the automatic budget cuts know