With the end of the lame duck session nearing, Congress has yet to pass a final budget bill for FY2011. 

Currently, the federal government is being funded through a Continuing Resolution that is set to expire at midnight tomorrow (December 18).

Last week the U.S. House passed a new Continuing Resolution that would begin when the current resolution expires and extend funding for the federal government through the entire 2011 fiscal year and provide $5.7 billion to pay off the pending shortfall in the Pell Grant Program.

The U.S. Senate had hoped to take a different approach and pass an omnibus spending bill, which would have combined all twelve appropriations bills and included funding for the Pell Grant shortfall, but efforts to move this approach forward failed.

It is expected that the U.S. Senate will move forward, instead, with a short-term (i.e. 45-day) continuing resolution this weekend. The resolution would then have to go back to the U.S. House for passage.