--- title: Senate in Rare Saturday Session as Shutdown Threat Looms Again description: The House passed a bandaid spending bill Friday but the Senate is locked in a showdown canonical: https://time.com/3632707/senate-saturday-session/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-13T17:06:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:50:17.510Z article:section: Politics og:title: Senate in Rare Saturday Session as Shutdown Threat Looms Again og:description: The House passed a bandaid spending bill Friday but the Senate is locked in a showdown og:url: https://time.com/3632707/senate-saturday-session/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8c5e66cfebec155b/69876e8aa988caf0996ab5eb/elizabeth-warren-senate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Senator Sherrod Brown Holds Hearing On "Regulatory Capture" With New York Fed's Dudley og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Senate in Rare Saturday Session as Shutdown Threat Looms Again twitter:description: The House passed a bandaid spending bill Friday but the Senate is locked in a showdown twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8c5e66cfebec155b/69876e8aa988caf0996ab5eb/elizabeth-warren-senate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Senate in Rare Saturday Session as Shutdown Threat Looms Again > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Dec 13, 2014 5:06 PM UTC  From Left: Senator Elizabeth Warren a Democrat from Massachusetts speaks with Senator Joe Manchin a Democrat from West Virginia during a Senate Banking Subcommittee in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 21, 2014. From Left: Senator Elizabeth Warren a Democrat from Massachusetts speaks with Senator Joe Manchin a Democrat from West Virginia during a Senate Banking Subcommittee in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 21, 2014. Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Dec 13, 2014 5:06 PM UTC For its grand finale before it concludes early next year, the 113th Congress is staging yet another procedural showdown in a rare Saturday session, as lawmakers work to pass a bill to fund the federal government before it [runs](http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/12/13/4026161%5Fsenate-braces-for-showdown-over.html?sp=/99/101/235/&rh=1) out of money at midnight. The House of Representatives Friday averted a government shutdown with a temporary spending bill to fund the government for five days, but the Senate must still approve the bill. The Hill has been locked in debate over a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September of next year. The Senate had hoped to close up shop for the year Friday, but lawmakers could not come to agreement after some Republican senators demanded a vote on a measure protesting President Obama’s controversial immigration order issued in November, which shields some four million undocumented immigrants in the United States from deportation. “Before the United States Senate is a bill that does nothing, absolutely nothing to stop President Obama’s illegal and unconstitutional amnesty,” said Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Some Democrats, however, are worried about changes to financial regulatory laws included in that measure, McClatchy reports. “A vote for this bill is a vote for future taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street,”Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D—Mass.), a longtime advocate for financial regulation reform, said Thursday. If lawmakers cannot come to an agreement on a temporary spending bill by midnight Saturday the federal government will run out of money. A final vote on the full $1.1 trillion spending bill could come on Monday. \[[_McClatchy_](http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/12/13/4026161%5Fsenate-braces-for-showdown-over.html?sp=/99/101/235/&rh=1)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3632707/senate-saturday-session/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3632707/senate-saturday-session/"},"headline":"Senate in Rare Saturday Session as Shutdown Threat Looms Again","datePublished":"2014-12-13T17:06:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:50:17.510Z","description":"The House passed a bandaid spending bill Friday but the Senate is locked in a showdown","url":"https://time.com/3632707/senate-saturday-session/","keywords":["Senate","Congress","politics","house","Budget","Shutdown","Spending"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8c5e66cfebec155b/69876e8aa988caf0996ab5eb/elizabeth-warren-senate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8c5e66cfebec155b/69876e8aa988caf0996ab5eb/elizabeth-warren-senate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senator Sherrod Brown Holds Hearing On \"Regulatory Capture\" With New York Fed's Dudley","caption":"Senator Sherrod Brown Holds Hearing On \"Regulatory Capture\" With New York Fed's Dudley","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/senate/","name":"Senate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3632707/senate-saturday-session/","name":"Senate in Rare Saturday Session as Shutdown Threat Looms Again"}}]}] ```