As Congress confronts a potential federal shutdown Tuesday and an Oct. 17 deadline to extend the government's ability to borrow money, what to watch for:
The House: Early Sunday, the Republican-led House approved a bill incorporating their latest additions to a must-pass government funding bill: a one-year delay in the nation's new health care law and permanent repeal of a tax on medical devices as the price for preventing a shutdown. The GOP's initial missive would have completely "defunded" implementation of "Obamacare."
The Senate: Convenes at 2 p.m. EDT Monday, 10 hours before a shutdown would begin. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is expected to quickly move to kill the House legislation, a step that is not subject to a filibuster and permits majority Democrats to easily dispatch it. The Senate voted Friday to pass a "clean" bill to keep the government running.
The House: Convenes at 10 a.m. EDT Monday, but awaits Senate action. GOP leaders say that once they receive the Senate bill, the House will bounce another measure right back to the Senate, but they haven't said what it will contain.
