Lawmakers Scrambling To Avoid Government Shutdown Over FEMA Funding

There's a chance that FEMA could run out of disaster relief money next week and that the federal government could shut down next month, because of a dispute over disaster funding in Congress. Last night Democrats and conservative Republicans unexpectedly joined forces to kill a stop-gap government funding bill because the measure budgeted for an increase for FEMA's dwindling disaster fund in ways they don't like.

Tea Party conservatives were angry that not enough money was cut elsewhere in the budget. Democrats didn't like that House leaders chose to cut a program to improve fuel efficient cars. So now lawmakers, who are slated for a recess next week, are scrambling to find a solution and there are lots of questions being asked about why this came to pass.