Shutdown averted; Congress approves stopgap budget plan

Lawmakers avoided triggering a government shutdown on Friday with an emergency budget extension approved just a few hours before federal funding would have lapsed.

The move prevents worker furloughs and program shutdowns at the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs and other government agencies set to begin on Oct. 1, the start of fiscal 2022. Service members would have been required to keep working in the event of a shutdown, but their paychecks could have been delayed without the funding fix.