Under OMB order, agencies stayed open despite late House vote

While the House and Senate moved swiftly Friday night to pass a short-term funding measure to keep government open while both bodies take up a broader fiscal 2011 funding measure next week, they didn't quite make it.

The Senate passed its version of the short-term measure, but the House didn't vote before midnight.

So were agencies technically shut down? No, because the Office of Management and Budget ordered them to stay open.

"While the current continuing resolution (CR) expires at midnight tonight," OMB Director Jacob Lew wrote in a memo to agencies, "Congress has indicated that it has reached agreement on a funding bill for the rest of the fiscal year. Earlier this evening, the Senate passed a short term CR that will extend current funding levels until the full-year bill can be passed and enacted next week. We expect the House to take up the CR shortly and for the President to sign this CR no later than tomorrow. As a result, at this time agencies are instructed to continue their normal operations."

In announcing the agreement on the budget deal, President Obama said it would allow "hundreds of thousands of Americans to show up at work and take home their paychecks on time, including our brave men and women in uniform."