Congress avoided a potential government shutdown on Saturday after a last-minute scramble touched off when President-elect Trump and Elon Musk tanked a bipartisan spending deal.

The big picture: Both chambers instead passed a spending bill, circumventing what would have been the first government shutdown since the record 35 day closure that began in Dec. 2018, during Trump's first term. • The government has failed to pass a spending bill on time on 21 previous occasions, though in several of those cases the funding gaps were resolved within two days, or even before any federal workers had to be furloughed. • Trump backed down on demands for border wall funding in order to bring the 2018-2019 shutdown to a close. • President Biden signed the latest stopgap on Saturday.

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