The debt limit caps how much the Treasury may borrow to pay for spending Congress already approved, and hitting it without an increase would force choices among payments no law currently defines.
Henrik Larsen
A shutdown stops pay and services at agencies whose annual funding has lapsed, while Social Security, Medicare, and other mandatory programs keep running by law.
Alexandria Lucas
Importers write the check to Customs and Border Protection, but government and Federal Reserve research shows the cost mostly lands on consumers within months.
Valentina Sokolov
Congress has finished its full appropriations process on time only three times in 47 years, making stopgap spending bills the routine way agencies stay funded.
A 6-3 decision in Trump v. CASA limits federal district courts to relief for the parties actually before them, reshaping how future litigants can challenge federal policy nationwide.
Congress routinely relies on short-term spending bills to avoid shutdowns, but the stopgap funding comes with restrictions that agencies say slow hiring, contracting and new programs.
Eighteen states and Washington, D.C. have pledged their electoral votes to the national popular-vote winner, reviving a state-by-state fight over how presidents are chosen.
The Constitution hands redistricting to state legislatures, but 18 states now route some or all of the job through a commission instead.
Henrik Larsen