The Senate just passed the second FY2017 continuing resolution that will keep the government funded through April 28, 2017. Thus there will be no government shutdown.

The House passed the CR yesterday, but the Senate vote was up in the air because two Democratic Senators wanted a longer-term guarantee of health care benefits for retired coal miners.

After intense negotiations, enough votes were secured to move forward with a vote on the measure, which ultimately passed 63-36.

DOD, NASA and NOAA will be funded at their current FY2016 levels during this period, although there are a number of exceptions (“anomalies’) for each of those agencies. NASA and NOAA, for example, are able to spend money to ensure that the launch dates for NASA’s Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) and NOAA’s first Joint Polar Satellite System weather satellite (JPSS-1) are not delayed.

The Senate is now turning to another bill, the Water Resources Development Act, which is highly contentious because of a provision added in the House, but once a vote is taken, the Senate is expected to end its business for the year, and for this Congress.