I’ve been working hard getting our NCAA Tournament forecasts ready for Selection Sunday. So I’d barely been paying attention to the drama in the Senate, where Republicans were trying to gather votes for a budget resolution to avert a government shutdown by midnight tonight.

The advance vote: The Senate voted 62-38 to end debate on the bill – a cloture vote – and advance it to a final vote. Nine Democrats and one independent, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voted in favor of cloture. That vote allowed the bill to pass with a simple majority in the final vote.

The Senate passed a bill Friday that will fund the government through September and avert a shutdown. Some Democratic lawmakers had wanted to use a shutdown threat to curtail President Trump's mass firing of federal workers.