Congress avoids shutdown, setting up spending pileup for early next year

Congress may have agreed to avoid a shutdown this week but the path to long-term funding is filled with landmines. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)

Congress is doing what it usually does when it can't negotiate a deal on annual spending bills — kicking the can for a couple of months. But this time they are setting up a headache.

The House and Senate both easily passed a stop-gap spending bill this week but that was the easy part. The road to a bipartisan, bicameral budget deal in early 2024 is already looking like it's full of landmines.