The House and Senate funded the government a month early this year, but the fix was the same one Congress has used 141 times since 1998: a continuing resolution, not a budget.

A stopgap isn't a budget. Here's the mechanical difference between the funding patch the Senate just passed and the appropriations fight still unresolved behind it.

A 155-year-old law, not politics, is what actually forces agencies to furlough workers the moment government funding lapses.