White House to tell U.S. agencies to prepare for first government shutdown of pandemic
Source: Washington Post
The White House budget office will tell federal agencies on Thursday to begin preparations for the first shutdown of the U.S. government since the pandemic began, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill struggle to reach a funding agreement. Administration officials stress the request is in line with traditional procedures seven days ahead of a shutdown and not a commentary on the likelihood of a congressional deal.
Both Democrats and Republicans have made clear they intend to fund the government before its funding expires on Sept. 30, but time is running out and lawmakers are aiming to resolve an enormous set of tasks to in a matter of weeks.House Democrats earlier this week approved a measure to fund the government, suspend the debt ceiling, and approve emergency aid such as disaster relief. But that plan is expected to die in the Senate amid GOP refusal to support Democratic attempts to lift the debt ceiling.
With the first of two major deadlines looming next week, Democrats publicly maintained the current course, pledging to put the House-backed bill before the Senate that would fund the government into December and allow the country to borrow freely throughout most of 2022. “Every single member of this chamber is going to go on record as to whether they support keeping the government open and averting a default, or support shutting us down and careening our country toward a first-ever default,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said to open debate on the chamber floor.
Privately, though, Democrats also began to acknowledge they are unlikely to prevail in the face of a GOP blockade. Democrats have started discussing the mechanics of how to sidestep Republicans as soon as next week, according to lawmakers and aides, as they maintain they will not allow the government to shut down in a pandemic or the country to default for the first time in history. “We’re looking at all the options, but a government shutdown is not acceptable,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Va.), a member of the chamber’s budget committee.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/09/23/shutdown-congress-budget-debt-ceiling/
= new reply since forum marked as read
where the media starts finger pointing at idiotic stuff like the "National Parks being closed". 
However as a note - the "infrastructure" (spending) reconciliation CANNOT be enacted this FY. Even if it passes this FY, reconciliation for FY2021 budgeting was already done using the "American Rescue Plan" reconciliation piece. It will have to wait until after September 30 and be effective for FY2022.
A debt ceiling or a revenue type reconciliation can still be done this FY.
They know who "cares" about governing so know their debt ceiling increases will be "bipartisan" and not become hostage-taking exercises. But they refuse to be "adults" when it comes to when Democrats are in charge.
The last debt ceiling increase had happened under TFG without grandstanding - both in 2017 through to 2018 and again in 2019 through to last month (this year of 2021) - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/debt-ceiling-suspension-expires/
And I know there is "pressuring" and "squeezing" (mainly internal to Democrats) regarding the "infrastructure bill + the reconciliation bill being inseparable, but they all know about the limits of the reconciliation piece at this point and the FY timing for even being able to use that tool (again due to it already having been used back in March).
I think the strategy was to avoid what would probably happen if the standalone infrastructure was passed and signed right now - i.e., the other piece (reconciliation) would then be deemed "unnecessary" and pretty much torpedoed by those opposing it. The Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats were trying to tie the two together by calling the reconciliation piece "Human 'infrastructure'" legislation.
I get what they were trying to do but it was a bit of a Hail Mary given our narrow margins in Congress at the moment. 
