Senate leaders have reached
an agreement to end the government shutdown, passing a bill to fund the
government until February 8th. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed to end a
filibuster on the spending bill, in exchange for Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell’s word that the Senate will begin debating immigration by the day the
short-term spending bill expires. The Senate vote was 80 to 18, with 33
Democrats joining 47 Republicans in voting for the measure. The Department of
Agriculture had planned to furlough roughly 70 percent of the agency’s
employees, despite notices from Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue that many
core programs would remain open during the shutdown. USDA insisted that during
the brief shutdown, food safety inspection would occur, along with import
controls, core nutrition programs and crop insurance. Some speculate that the
brief government shutdown harms efforts to pass future legislation later this
year, including the next farm bill.
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