What a waste!

Here is what looks like is going on with the budgets and programs, gathered from several reports. 1. Labs spent this week safely shutting down - did no program work. 2. Labs spent prior two weeks planning for the safe shut down - did no program work. 3. Labs will spend next week doing a safe re-start - will do no program work. 4. A budget is in place until January 15, 2014 - at the 2013 sequestration cut levels. 5. A new budget is scheduled to be in place by January 15, 2014 - but if it is not, then the next round of sequestration cuts (about twice as large for national security programs as the first round) take place. Overall, no program work for four weeks, a three month budget that is too small to support the existing workforce, and a very high chance that the next budget is even smaller. That about covers it, until February 2014, when the debt limit is hit once more and the next round of negotiations happen. Since it has already been done once, maybe next time we can skip step 2, and only have two weeks of no program work.