Note: This article was updated on Nov. 7 to reflect the latest information on budget negotiations. <\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In less than two weeks time, Congress will pick up where it left off to pass a budget before the government\u2019s continuing resolution expires on Nov. 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With it is likely to come an average pay raise<\/a> of 5.2% for federal employees, starting Jan. 1, which was first proposed by President Joe Biden in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That number seems safe since Congress has offered no formal alternative to Biden\u2019s proposal. What\u2019s uncertain is whether a shutdown will occur that could delay pay altogether for federal employees or change the course of negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the weeks before the government pushed through a last-minute stopgap bill on Sept. 30, negotiations had been fraught on Capitol Hill, leading experts to see a shutdown as a credible risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it\u2019s quite likely that we\u2019re going to have a shutdown,\u201d Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told Bloomberg TV on July 26.<\/a> \u201cAnd the reason is: what seemed like a clear deal \u2014 the Fiscal Responsibility Act, we knew what levels we were going to spend on \u2014 has been turned on its head where now there\u2019s no longer clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n