The Senate reached agreement on a Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government, including reduced emergency funds — but without offsets — through November 18. This was a win for the Democrats, who preserved the principle of emergency funding without offsets.

Despite threats to carry on with a one-week recess, Congress stayed in session, with still no agreement on funding the government past this Friday. That means the threat of a government shutdown is still there.

Governors in states affected by Hurricane Irene – two Democrats and two Republicans – are urging Congress to restore FEMA funding for disaster relief without delay. Govs. Chris Christie (R-NJ), Tom Corbett (R-PA), Bev Perdue (D-NC) and Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) made the statement:

“Federal assistance for the victims of storms and floods should be beyond politics,” the governors wrote Friday. “Our states’ governments and our citizens are doing their part to restore and rebuild. The federal government must also do its part.”

The House of Representatives passed their continuing resolution to fund the government for the first part of fiscal year 2012, but the odds of a government shutdown increased because the House offset disaster relief funding, while the Senate opposes offsets.

Yesterday’s setback for Speaker John Boehner on a continuing resolution to fund the government shows what little real control Boehner has over his caucus. With 242 members, Boehner has the ability to pass any legislation he wants without Democratic crossover votes – and in this case he got 6 Democratic crossovers. He has a good deal of power at his disposal to threaten Congressmen, to tell them their legislation will never see the light of day, to withhold needed campaign support, to knock them off committee assignments. He did all this and more yesterday. And he still could not budge the more conservative members of his party.

What the Republicans are doing is saying that a natural disaster must cause government accounts to drop. It assumes there’s a finite amount of money available for spending, and if a hurricane blows through your house, someone else, in this case hybrid vehicle manufacturers, have to pay for it. Now, the Chevy Volt had nothing to do with the hurricane. But they’re bearing the burden for rebuilding after the storm.

This is completely unprecedented in the history of the nation and defies common sense; that’s why Reid is fighting it, to make sure it doesn’t become a new normal.

Last night, it didn’t look as if the Senate would be able to get the clean extension of both the FAA authorization and the surface transportation authorization before a deadline of today. Tom Coburn was holding up the bill in a fruitless crusade against bike paths. It’s a long story.

The attempt to meet looming deadlines and avoid shutdowns of part (or all) of the government resembles the aftermath of a car wreck right now. It’s unclear whether the Senate can move the broken-down vehicles off the road in time to let the traffic move through.

The fact that Schumer took this to the floor means that he obviously sees political opportunity here, but also that this is not a fanciful notion. We really could have another government shutdown threat on our hands.

It was only a matter of time that the Republicans’ newfound desire to lower the volume and not take hostages to achieve their aims would fall apart. We apparently have gotten through the FAA authorization extension, the surface transportation extension, and the debt limit vote without incident, but things are starting to break down. John Boehner is looking to hold back some reserve of funds for the FY 2012 budget, in order to force policy changes: