The Week in Review
The House and Senate both adjourned for the year after passing a four-week stopgap spending bill that will keep the government open until Jan. 19 and prevent $136 billion in automatic under congressional PAYGO rules. The Senate overwhelmingly rejected a proposal from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on PAYGO to strip the language avoiding a potential sequestration, which would have been triggered in 2019 if President Trump were to sign the tax bill in January. Just eight Senate Republicans voted to enforce the PAYGO cuts, while every Democrat agreed to waive the pending sequestration. Although Congress was able to avoid a government shutdown, they failed to complete work on an $81-billion disaster aid package to help California, Gulf Coast states and Puerto Rico recover from wildfires and hurricanes, as lawmakers scrambled Thursday to wrap up business before a Christmas break.