avoid a government shutdown. this is essentially what the house is taking up, roughly the same measure. that will give us a little bit of breathing room. they ll have to revisit this drama all over again in november. how much time does this measure buy, will it get past the house? there are a lot of angry folks, the same folks who pushed speaker boehner out. excellent questions, neil. this is the deadline, the end of the government s fiscal year. a lot of the drama seems to be gone after house speaker boehner s resignation announcement on friday. they re voting on a government extension that would run ten weeks. it passed the senate by a wide bipartisan vote, 78-20. but the next time this issue comes up before christmas, it may be a much tougher fight. boehner is still speaker of the house but in december it will