As the Dec. 13 deadline for a budget deal approaches, some sources are saying prospects for a deal may be growing. Demand Congress do its job to avoid yet another government shutdown.

Our nation is in crisis. The federal government has shutdown and lawmakers show no sign of moving toward an agreement. But there are 243 million ways to end this shutdown.

We've been talking a lot about how this government shutdown is corrosive for our democracy. But, of course, there's also a cost in dollars.

The government has shut down today because Congress failed to do its job of passing a budget for fiscal year 2014, which begins today.

NPP is working with partner organizations to send a letter to our lawmakers in Washington, D.C. Dear Congress: it's time for Congress to return to the regular appropriations process and ensure that people have a voice in how their tax dollars are spent.

The one-two punch of a looming government shutdown and the reliance on stop-gap spending measures to fund the government is a stark reminder of the rampant dysfunction in the halls of Congress.

There are just a few days left before Oct. 1, the start of the federal government’s new fiscal year and the deadline for Congress to pass some sort of a spending bill in order to avoid a government shutdown.

Congress failed to make funding decisions for fiscal 2014 on its regular time-frame, and now the debate on Syria has jumped to the front of the line. That means Congress is going to make some very last-minute decisions about spending in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Even more last-minute than they had already planned.

The sequester not only cut money allocated to federal programs, but also meant reductions for federal spending at the state and local level.

After months of inaction on the federal budget, Congress is now wrapping up work on two – the budget for fiscal year 2013, which began back on Oct. 1, 2012, and the first steps in a budget for fiscal 2014, which will begin on Oct. 1, 2013.