Although your federal customers do have to prepare as if there might be another partial shutdown, Allen Federal is placing the odds of such an event at well below 50-50.  That doesn’t mean that we’re predicting that all of the issues that led to the first shutdown will magically be addressed, but rather that there is little will in Congress, especially in the Senate, to go through another shutdown event for quite some time.  It is quite possible that Congress could vote to fund the agencies in play and decide separately on the President’s border wall initiative.  Another scenario is that Congress sends another CR to the President who then vetoes it, only to have that veto overridden.  Either way, agencies currently operating under a CR are likely to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.  That’s not the best news for contractors, but it does keep agencies open and provides an opportunity for discussions about future business when and if formal appropriations are made available.  One wild card to watch is what the President says tomorrow night in his State of the Union address.  That may provide clues as to whether a grand deal is achievable, potentially resulting in actual appropriations measures being passed in the short-term.  In the meantime, the government is open for business, albeit with morale and weather issues making it slow going.