Congress is poised to pass a catch-all spending measure by the end of this week that will give all federal agencies actual appropriated dollars for the remainder of the 2017 Fiscal Year.  Despite media-fed worry over a possible shut-down at the end of the week, the government is quite likely to stay open and thrive.  Passage of an omnibus measure will enable agencies to start new projects and will likely lead to a strong surge of business between June and September 30^th.  Until now, only the VA and Congress itself have had “new money” for FY’17.  As such, agencies that relied on appropriated money could only keep in motion projects that had previously started.  The omnibus spending measure will not contain significant cuts for civilian agencies, but will also not substantially boost DOD spending.  DOD may get more money later if Congress can pass a separate bill.  Civilian cuts promised by the Administration may wait until 2018.  While Congress will pass the measure in the coming days it will take about a month for line-level offices to actually know how much is in their accounts for the remainder of the year.  Still, planning is already underway on how the money will be spent.  We’ve said before that it’s time to get the vacations done by the start of summer.  Contractors should be geared up and ready for business for the next 5 months.