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Notes -
I have to wonder, are we the only country that uses the act of funding the government to try and get laws passed at the same time? Surely they don't do this in other countries--I wouldn't be surprised if they even have laws against it! Granted, I guess "shutting down the federal government" is met with a shrug of the shoulders in other countries compared to here (for example, I visited Spain at a time where there was apparently no government formed).
I am not aware of any others, but I'm also not aware of any other legislative body that has anything like the cloture rule in the US Senate (requiring a larger proportion of votes in the body to end debate on a bill and proceed to a vote to pass it than is required to actually pass it). If the Senate didn't have its particular cloture rule it would be unnecessary to tie so many bills making substantive policy changes to a spending bill, because they could just be passed through ordinary business instead.
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