There is no budget passed for FY2017 for the US federal government yet. What does that mean? Legal authority to spend money to operate the federal government goes away as of 12:01 AM on October 1, 2016. If you'd like a timer from timeanddate.com you can use one here: http://timeanddate.com/s/32nx

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, laid down in the Senate through procedural tricks a last, best, final offer for moving forward with stopgap funding. He's not assured of having enough votes to pass it. President Obama may veto the bloody thing. The House of Represenatives is a wildcard in the mix, too.

If a so-called government shutdown occurs, I go on furlough like normal. The problem is that many other federal civil servants either go on furlough too (non-pay suspension) or have to work without pay until the Congress and the President get their crap together. Generally security/safety/defense personnel stay on the job unpaid while most other positions like mine are deemed "unexcepted" which means the functions people like me perform stop in the meantime.

The big test vote is Tuesday in the early evening. The Grand Game is underway again. Sadly these are statesmen playing it.