US President Barack Obama has signed legislation passed by Congress Wednesday to temporarily lift the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown, averting the threat of default just hours before the October 17 deadline. The legislation funds the government through to January 15 and lifts the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling until February 7. The White House budget director, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, said... 

The White House budget director has ordered federal agencies to begin closing down after the Senate and the House of Representatives failed to reach an agreement on a budget plan to avert a government shutdown. “Agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director Of the White House Office of Management and Budget...