Up against a midnight deadline to avoid a government shutdown, the Senate last Wednesday passed legislation that temporarily extended spending on most federal programs at current levels while raising Congress’ budget by 6 percent. On the same day, President Obama signed a continuing resolution to fund ongoing federal government operations through October 31, 2009.
Included in the legislation were provisions to extend the E-Verify, Religious Worker, Conrad 30 and EB-5 programs for an additional 30 days, although these programs are likely to be extended for an additional period of time once the Senate and House conference the FY10 Homeland Security Appropriations bill (H.R. 2892) in the coming weeks.