This Congress is going out just the way it began : in complete disarray . Fourteen months after tea party conservatives ignored Republican leaders and forced a two-week government shutdown , another one came close to happening -- this time because liberals were blowing off President Barack Obama 's pleas to support a government funding measure . In the early morning hours Friday , Obama signed a two-day extension , and the Senate is expected to pick up the legislation and vote on it later Friday , though they have until midnight Saturday before the next deadline . For weeks , legislative leaders insisted another shutdown would n't happen . And it did n't . But the House was just two hours away , and the Senate might not cast its final votes until this weekend . Another flirtation with another deadline -- this one after a midterm election that swept Republicans into control of the Senate -- offers a grim glimpse at the paralyzing levels of dissent that could come next . Republicans do n't fear their leadership . And Democrats do n't need their President . After November 's elections , when the GOP won the Senate and expanded its majority in the House , party leaders claimed a mandate . Soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pledged that with Republicans in control of both chambers come January , things will be different . More amendments will be allowed . `` Center-right '' legislation will advance . But long-clear divisions on the right remain -- and were evident in the House when 16 Republicans , many angry that the party had n't fought harder to block Obama 's executive action on immigration , opposed the measure in a key procedural vote and nearly dealt their leaders a major blow . By the end of the night , 67 Republicans voted against the measure 's final passage . Conservative lawmakers complained that House Republican leadership punted their latest opportunity to combat Obama 's signature health care law -- which they fought to defund during the October 2013 shutdown -- and his executive overhaul of immigration and deportation rules . `` We 've seen the same pattern ... Now Obamacare is funded . Now Obama 's executive amnesty is funded , '' Rep. Steve King , R-Iowa , said on Fox News . Alongside him , Rep. Michele Bachmann , R-Minnesota , called the vote `` disrespectful '' to midterm voters . Even if Republicans gain stability , Democrats are splintering . Fresh off an election that purged the Democrats of many of their most centrist members , liberals -- now more influential within their own ranks -- have gone rogue , saying `` no '' to what the White House called a fair compromise , even though their bargaining position is n't going to get better . In an extraordinary scene Thursday afternoon , two of the party 's most influential members made high-profile breaks with Obama . House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called the government funding measure `` blackmail '' because of its inclusion of language rolling back a Wall Street reform that Democrats had fought hard to win in 2010 . Meanwhile , the party 's liberal hero , Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren , declared on the Senate floor that it is `` time for all of us to stand up and fight . '' Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were calling House Democrats , urging them to support the measure . White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough rushed into a caucus meeting to make its case . But Democrats insisted as they exited that meeting that McDonough had n't won many members over . Rep. Jan Schakowsky , D-Illinois , said Democrats need to draw a line now to signal that they wo n't accept these kinds of deals in the future -- when Republicans will control the Senate , too , and are certain to advance bills with more conservative priorities . `` If you do n't stand for something you 'll fall for anything , '' Rep. John Lewis , D-Georgia , said in the meeting . Still , some influential lawmakers said the government funding measure was a chance at redemption . Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski , D-Maryland , said Thursday night was an opportunity for Congress to break a pattern in which lawmakers have `` paralyzed ourselves by making the perfect the enemy of the good . '' `` We tried to govern on a bipartisan basis , '' she said . `` We reached across the aisle and we reached across the Capitol dome . ''
President Barack Obama signed the deadline extension night . Congress could vote on spending bill Friday , but have until 14 months before next deadline . Congress narrowly averted another shutdown Thursday early Friday morning , 14 months after the last one . What 's new is that now Republican do n't need their President .