Fiscal issues to haunt U.S. Congress after its August recess
After notching a few legislative accomplishments this year, the U.S. Congress is fast approaching a test of its core ability to govern, with the convergence of a series of fiscal challenges that if botched could lead to a government shutdown and even default.
In September, lawmakers must agree on funding levels for the Oct. 1 start to the next fiscal year or face agency shutdowns like those that vexed Washington and unnerved financial markets for more than two weeks in October 2013.
Add in the need to raise the Treasury Department's borrowing authority, extend expiring tax breaks and replenish a fund for road and rail transit projects, and the Republican-controlled Congress will face its toughest decisions of 2015.
Unless Congress acts to raise the $18.1 trillion debt limit, the Treasury could run short of funds to pay some obligations by November or December, a line that lawmakers have flirted with in the past but never crossed.
http://news.yahoo.com/fiscal-issues-haunt-u-congress-august-recess-211429820--business.html
