Much of the government shuts down at midnight December 11^th if Congress fails to pass a spending bill or another Continuing Resolution.  While this date may seem like a ways off, remember that Congress leaves town for over a week at Thanksgiving and that the House rarely votes on Mondays.  It will already December, therefore, when Congress returns from its break.  Although discussions are being held, any number of outside issues – immigration is the current front-runner in the wake of the Paris attacks – could become major hurdles. There will also be calls for more defense spending, further complicating deals that may have been close before last week that struck a balance between defense and non-defense money.  The closer we get to the December 11^th date, the more distracted your federal customer becomes.  Federal agencies are already cancelling training and travel for the week of December 7^th because they don’t want to risk federal workers being stranded.  Other business will also slow down as federal workers take “use it or lose it” leave.  While leaders in each party say they want to avoid a shut-down, the clock is ticking.