• Source: GOP will approve 5- or 6- day measure to avert shutdown

    From NBC's Luke Russert
    While a final deal is hammered out by budget negotiators, House Republicans are expected to agree to a five or six day temporary government funding bill tonight that would prevent a government shutdown, a GOP source tells NBC News.

    The stopgap measure will contain $3 billion in cuts and keep the government funded while the last details of a spending bill to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year are finalized. Both sides are close to a final deal on the long-term budget measure.

    "This is the best deal we could get out of them," House Speaker John Boehner reportedly told GOP members in a closed-door caucus meeting of negotiations with Democrats.

  • Lawmakers ready emergency troop pay bill

    From NBC’s Luke Russert
    If a government shutdown becomes inevitable, lawmakers appear ready to pass last-minute legislation to prevent the most unpopular possible effect of a funding gap: the delay of paychecks to members of the armed services.

    Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, has introduced legislation that would pay the military on time even if a larger federal funding lapse occurs. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, has introduced companion legislation in the Senate and has indicated that the measure has ample support on her side of the aisle.

    GOP sources tell NBC News that if a shutdown appears inevitable there is a very good possibility this military funding bill would be brought to the House floor, passed quickly, and sent on to the Senate.

    “The pressure is fortunately mounting now on both sides to take care of those who are fighting for us,” Gohmert said on his Facebook page.

    The House has already passed a measure that would fund the military through the rest of the fiscal year, but it is attached to a larger one-week spending bill that both Senate Democrats and President Obama have said they would reject.

  • House passes one-week spending bill; Obama says he will veto

    From NBC's Luke Russert
    The House just passed a temporary one-week spending bill that would fund the government for another week, fund the Pentagon through the rest of fiscal year 2011, and cut $12 billion in spending.

    The vote was 247-181.

    The White House has threatened to veto this bill if it comes to the president's desk, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called it “a nonstarter” this morning.

  • Who gets paid if there's a shutdown? Members of Congress still will

    From NBC's Luke Russert
    On the eve of a possible government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal workers and members of the military are at risk of not collecting a paycheck until after Congress reaches a deal to fund the government.

    But as of now, the people directly involved in bringing about a shutdown -- members of Congress -- will still continue to receive their pay as scheduled even if scores of other workers are furloughed.

    Stand-alone legislation has been proposed -- but not passed in both the House and the Senate -- that would prohibit members of Congress from receiving their pay in the event of a shutdown. Members of Congress make, on average, $174,000 per year.

    On March 1, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would bar members of Congress from receiving a paycheck in the event of a federal funding gap. That bill was sent to the House but has not been scheduled for a floor vote.

    That has drawn the criticism of sponsors of the Senate legislation,  including Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

    In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner this week, Boxer told the House leader “you have failed to schedule a vote on stand-alone legislation that would treat Members of Congress and the President no differently from other federal employees during a government shutdown.”

    Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., announced Thursday that he will return his salary to the U.S. Treasury in case of a shutdown -- and he has urged his colleagues in the Senate to do the same.

    Republicans included language similar to Boxer's bill in a measure that passed the House last week, but the no-pay language was attached to a provision which said if the Senate failed to act on passing a budget for the rest of fiscal year 2011, the House GOP budget would be the law of the land.

    As expected, Democrats in the Senate declined to pass the overall bill, which would have allowed Republicans' desired $61 billion in total cuts to federal spending.

    In an interview with ABC News yesterday, Boehner claimed he favored legislation that would bar member pay in the event of a shutdown.

    “No, they shouldn’t be getting paid," he said. "Just like federal employees shouldn’t be getting paid."

    But when asked today by NBC News whether or not House Republicans would bring forth a bill that simply contained language prohibiting members of Congress from being paid in the event of a government shutdown without being attached to other measures, Boehner demurred.

    “We passed a bill similar to the Senate and we’re hoping they’ll act on it,” he said.

    The reality is that the Senate will not act on the House GOP language because it is attached to legislation that would limit its institutional power.  So unless a “clean bill” that bans Congress from being paid in the event of shutdown is brought to the House floor before 11:59pm ET on Friday, members of Congress will keep collecting paychecks even as the lights in other federal offices go out.

    Msnbc.com's Carrie Dann contributed to this report.

  • Cops investigating pig's foot sent to Rep. Peter King's office

    From NBC's Luke Russert
    A Capitol Hill source tells NBC that the Washington D.C. office of Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) was sent a bloody pig's foot with a note attached that contained anti-Semitic ramblings.

    The note referenced King's controversial hearing last month about Muslim extremism within the United States.

    The Capitol Hill police are treating this incident as an "open investigation."

    The pig's foot was found when the package it was contained in was radiated and scanned for explosives. The package never actually reached King's office and was intercepted beforehand.