With each passing vote failing to result in the election of a Speaker of the House, time runs out to do meaningful work on FY’24 appropriations bills or to even begin to focus on another CR, something that will almost certainly be required to keep the government open.  While several ideas have been offered, including giving the acting speaker more authority, no definitive action has been taken.  Notably, Bloomberg Government states that at least six House Republicans may be lining up to run for speaker if it becomes apparent that Rep. Jim  Jordan (R-OH) cannot obtain enough support.  A potential six-way speaker race is not what is needed at a time when national and international events demand serious leadership.  Government contractors and their customers have no real choice but to continue conducting business under as normal circumstances as possible.  It seems clear that no one can get Republican House members to embrace reality.  If this were a high school student council, the sponsoring faculty would have stepped in by now to restore order.  Since that’s not possible here, contractors should continue to develop business and plan for future opportunities.  If the current impasse extends into the second week of November, companies should then re-start their shut-down actions in anticipation of a possible closure starting at midnight on November 17^th.  Government customers will also have to conduct necessary continuity actions.  Hopefully, though, the impasse will be broken in the next week.  The best-case scenario is then to have FY’24 appropriations bills passed by Christmas, though that is becoming less and less likely.  We could have the government operating under a CR into the 2024 calendar year.  Please don’t stone the messenger because of the message.