Article snippet: Congress is bracing for a three-week sprint to avoid the second government shutdown of the year. Lawmakers are returning to Washington on Monday, and they’ll have 16 working days to reach a deal to fund the government by Oct. 1 or pass a spending patch to kick the fight closer to the holidays. But the House and Senate are coming back to town with plans to move forward on different tracks. House Democrats are focused on passing a continuing resolution (CR), while Senate Republicans are set to make a late start at moving fiscal 2020 bills. House Majority Leader MORE (D-Md.) outlined his plan in a “Dear Colleague” letter while knocking Senate Republicans for failing to “introduce a single appropriations bill for the first time in more than three decades.” “As we wait for them to complete their work so that we can begin conference negotiations, a continuing resolution will be necessary to prevent another government shutdown like the one we experienced earlier this year, which harmed thousands of American families,” Hoyer wrote in his letter to House Democrats. Leadership hasn’t formally announced how long a CR, which would continue funding levels at fiscal 2019 levels, would last. A House Democratic aide said the spending patch would likely go until either late November or early December but pegged the most likely end date as Nov. 22. That would put the next spending deadline up against a weeklong Thanksgiving recess, with lawmakers expected to leave Washington ... Link to the full article to read more