The art of the deal in Congress has not been lost, as both parties found a way on Monday to wiggle out of a political battle that threatened to develop into a full blown government shutdown for Uncle Sam at the end of this week.

But instead of that, lawmakers found a way to tweak a stop gap budget bill to temporarily keep the government running into mid-November.

The deal announced Monday evening made two changes to a House-passed budget bill, knocking out $1.6 billion in budget cuts approved by the House, and taking out $1 billion in extra money for FEMA.

The extra money was tossed out of the bill after FEMA suddenly "found" it had more than enough money to get through the week and to the end of the fiscal year.

Without having to worry that FEMA would run out of disaster money during the week, then the way was open to do two things - cut out an extra $1 billion in funding meant for this fiscal year - and getting rid of $1.6 billion in budget cuts meant to pay for some of the extra disaster aid.

The Senate approved two different measures last night: a short term budget to keep the government running into early next week and the longer six week budget plan.

That means the House will likely approve the four day plan on Thursday when the House meets in a technical "pro forma" session.

There would then be a vote next week when lawmakers return to work on the longer term budget bill.