From shutdown to showdown

Despite breaking the logjam on spending, lawmakers will soon wade back into battle

WASHINGTON – If the three-day government shutdown looked messy, the next three weeks could bring a congressional maelstrom.

Monday’s breakthrough guaranteed two things, and only two things: that there will be another funding cliff on Feb. 8 and that the deeply contentious immigration debate will rage on.

The Senate passed a three-week spending bill Monday and sent it to the House for final approval, allowing the federal government to reopen Tuesday. Democrats agreed to support the bill af- ter winning a commitment from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to bring up an immigration bill on Feb. 8 — or before then if there’s bipartisan consensus around a specific proposal.

“On the one hand, it’s kind of a non-agreement. It just gets the government back up,” said Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University.

But, Binder said, Democrats did get a little leverage and the promise of an upor-down Senate vote on legislation to protect “DREAMers,” the young immigrants who were brought to the USA illegally as children. That’s nothing to

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP After a procedural vote aimed at reopening the government, lawmakers praise Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, on Monday for leading a bipartisan effort to get a spending measure passed.